"Is Peckerhead Hyphenated?" Building the International Space Station

the long version

This is a true story about the funny side of building the International Space Station. It is told around actual quotes from real people that accurately, and often elegantly, describe what management would call a ‘character-building’ situation. Technically and managerially, the International Space Station was a tremendously ambitious project to undertake; it broke new ground in the fields of politics and bureaucracy. All the more magnificent then stands the triumph of those individuals who overcame all the obstacles and somehow managed to get it built regardless. And thirty years on, what this story reveals about human nature and its predilection for hampering large-scale endeavors is as true as ever.