NASA has blasted seven 'astronauts' to add component to the 'space station.' This strikes me as utterly absurd and, given pressing human needs on earth right now, an immoral waste.

Sandy asks whether the purpose may be, ultimately, military -- 'seize the high ground.' (And she points out that nations are rushing, similarly, to seize the sea-bed of the Arctic Ocean. This may bee the only explanational which is halfway plausible.