We already had Skylab, which never gets the attention it deserves, and the Russians had Mir. They kept somebody up there for more than a year. The true mission

We already had Skylab, which never gets the attention it deserves, and the Russians had Mir. They kept somebody up there for more than a year. The true mission of the ISS was to serve as a jobs program for the shuttle. The Apollo missions accomplished infinitely more--including launching Skylab--than the shuttle and ISS ever could have accomplished.