What's a Cool Billion Between Taxpayers, Anyway?
The International Space Station's impending disposal could prove quite costly for NASA, as the beancounters begin to count up the damage. The administration began running some figures for the overall cost of decommissioning all 450 tons of the ISS, and the rough figure sits at almost $1 billion. The costs wouldn't have been so bad in previous years, if they could make use of Russian assistance and their Progress vehicles. Under that older plan, the Russians would provide a series of the spacecraft to be connected to portions of the ISS to provide for a stabilized, controlled deorbit procedure.
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