Deorbiting ISS: A Missed Opportunity for Industry

Some in the space industry argue that NASA's plan to spend up to $1 billion on a tug to deorbit the International Space Station (ISS) is a missed opportunity to instead repurpose or recycle the station. They suggest that instead of letting it burn up and lose all of its economic value, the station could be taken to a foundry in space and broken down into raw materials. However, NASA has not discussed any consideration of repurposing elements of the ISS before the station is deorbited.