Anyone watch "Gravity" ?

I think the Space power should start practising flying around the various space stations. The Iss is so near to Earth, should put it out to maybe a couple of thousand km away. Put a few up there and fly around the different stations and the moon. This will probably speed up the space travel technology, no need to set big goal big budget and eventually going nowhere. The money spent on defence by all the big countries should be able to pay for a few stations. But too bad, human kind are so afraid that if they let their guards down, fellow human will take the opportunity to conquer them.