NASA plans to hand over the ISS to a private corporation

engadget ^ | 08/19/2016 | Mariella Moon

[BenLurkin]

NASA is dead set on leaving Low-Earth Orbit to go to the moon, Mars and other farther destinations. That means extending the space station's funding beyond 2024 is out of the question. Now, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Bill Hill has revealed what the agency wants to do with the ISS once astronauts move out. Instead of deorbiting it and sinking it into the ocean or breaking it apart to sell piece by piece, it apparently wants to hand the spacecraft over to a private corporation.

[RBStealth]

So Nasa is behind global warming and ISIS?

[I want the USA back]

Does the article say that bammy stopped funding it?

[Steely Tom]

Sounds like a halfway decent idea.

[Chode]

GIVE AWAY... not sell???

[mindburglar]

Trump should put his name on it.

[Talisker]

An American corporation?

Or Saudis?

[Right Wing Assault]

Would this company be in China? Ooh! Or in Iran as part of the Muslim outreach!

[Renegade]

Give it to BLM and send them all the there.

[Rio]

A hole in NEO that you rocket vast quantities of money into?

Good plan.

[wille777]

sell it to an AMERICAN company.

Let them turn it into a stop for fuel/etc for space exploration. It’s not like there’s a 7-11 out there.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Free, to a good contributor’s home. :)

[Vince Ferrer]

Give it to Bigelow Aerospace, if they will take it.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

President Donald Trump may well have other ideas—so to will be the president who follows him, President Ivanka Trump.

[RBStealth]

There was one?

[Hodar]

GIVE AWAY... not sell???

It's gonna come down, or someone can invest some money and keep it going. Which would you rather have done? Invest Billions in getting more fuel up to keep it going, or let a company assume this?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Rather send them to a place far away from our glalaxy.

[Afterguard]

I agree! Unfortunately, as most things go, the taxpayer will continue to pay via tax exemption subsidies to the commercial enterprise. And it better be a US controlled enterprise.

[Chode]

if it was never put out to bid it's a moot point, the least they could have done is try to sell or rent it first

[mrsmith]

Incredibly stupid.
A LEO is needed as a transfer station where people and supplies are taken off a ship specialized for planetary operations and placed on one designed for space operation.

That’s not profitable yet.
Leaving satellite maintenance as the only income flow. And that’s too small.