The proper way to plan a scientific project is first to decide its goal and then to plan the best way to accomplish that goal. The United States space station project does not conform to this ideal. When the Cold War ended, the project lost its original purpose, so another purpose was quickly grafted onto the project, that of conducting limited-gravity experiments, even though such experiments can be done in an alternative way. It is, therefore, abundantly clear that the space station should not be built.

The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument

(A) attacks the proponents of a claim rather than arguing against the claim itself

(B) presupposes what it sets out to prove

(C) faults planners for not foreseeing a certain event, when in fact that event was not foreseeable

(D) contains statements that lead to a self-contradiction

(E) concludes that a shortcoming is fatal, having produced evidence only of the existence of that shortcoming