> Once the station reaches the end of its life, NASA intends to transition its activities in low-Earth orbit onto private space stations, and it has funded initial development work by Axiom Space, Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin, and Voyager Space.<p>One publication I read made a couple of relevant points:<p>NASA should be careful about privatization and subcontracting, as it replaces NASA top-notch engineers with contract managers and oversight. Most engineers aren't interested in that work, and the skills don't stay sharp.<p>Also, it said that Gateway, the space station planned to orbit the Moon, is considered the conceptual descendent of ISS.<p>Much more here:
<a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/cart/download.cgi?record_id=27519" rel="nofollow">https://nap.nationalacademies.org/cart/download.cgi?record_i...</a><p>IMHO NASA should focus on the cutting edge, pushing the frontiers of space and technology. I'm glad they stopped bothering with orbital launch, which they've done for over 60 years - many countries and many private companies can do that now. I'm not sure where ISS falls - LEO is obviously relatively common technology, but habitation in orbit? Space stations orbiting the Moon are the kind of thing where NASA should aim.