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https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/elon-musk-iss-deorbit-00205268

God the media's takes on this are awful. No, Elon doesn't want to deorbit the ISS because he got into a twitter fight. Its far more nuanced and sinister than that. From a space enthusiast, here's the real story:

TL;DR Elon wanted to deorbit this bitch long before getting his grubby paws on the treasury. SpaceX already has the deorbit vehicle contract, he just wants the ISS destroyed early so the next president can't extend its lifespan. A private-sector space station is lucrative for Elon, and killing ISS early also kills his competitor's station plans.

Firstly, those astronauts were not "left in space." SpaceX wasn't denied opportunity to "rescue" them. They didn't need rescuing and they weren't ever stuck. The boeing spacecraft initially planned as their return vehicle had minor malfunctions (had they used it, it would have been fine). Out of an abundance of caution, they were given the option to stay on as researchers for another 6 months until the next scheduled flight. At no point did they get into actual emergency contingency measures, which would have seen a rapid SpaceX contract for returning crew in under a week. Or they could have squeezed into the soyuz capsule in a true emergency.

Astronauts train their entire life for a chance to go to space. If they are lucky, they get to do it once for 3-6 months. These astronauts obviously saw the opportunity of a lifetime and took it. The only people working on the ISS are people who's dream it is to be an astronaut. There are too few slots to give the job to anyone else. Elon is insulting the choice they made by "rescuing" them and bringing them home early.

Secondly, we are seeing rapid commercialization of space research. Axiom Space sent up paying customers to the ISS, bypassing the normal selection process. Awful, stupid, capitalist. NASA's hand was forced by budget cuts and maintenance obligations. They needed funding from somewhere, basically. NASA also signed a deal with Axiom to use the ISS a scaffolding for Axiom's next-gen corpo station which makes the whole process easier and cheaper. The next-gen Axiom station has contracts all over american industry (boeing, amazing, blue origin, university programs across the nation, and even SpaceX). It is in part the Artemis program's successor to the Apollo-era jobs program.

A key thing to understand is that the US space industry is and always has been a jobs program, and Elon is very intent on blowing that up for cold hard cash.

Elon wants ISS gone yesterday for greed-driven reasons - ditching the only publicly-owned station so NASA is forced to award all future science and station contracts to private companies. He also likely wants it deorbited before the competitor Axiom Space station can come online (even though his fucking company is helping build it).

In late June, the Biden admin awarded SpaceX $843 million dollars to build a space station deorbit vehicle. Very wisely IMO, they read the writing on the wall and scheduled the actual deorbit for 2030 during the next administration after Trump is out of office (hopefully). Elon wants to do it now, and is doing a press blitz to get it done. Deorbiting the ISS during Trumps' term means the next president has no opportunity to extend its lifespan and help Axiom. NASA will essentially be forced to award the next space station to SpaceX for gajillions of dollars. Its a very calculated move for personal gain and I hate it. Don't think this is about Elon's ego, he was creaming his pants about deorbiting the ISS long before he got his grubby little paws anywhere near the treasury

- posted by Dani