Why Destroy the I.S.S.?

 Why destroy the Space Station instead of moving it to L-5 or L-3 for storage? Why did Biden-Harris give Space X a contract to destroy the I.S.S. by burning it up in the Earth’s atmosphere instead of lifting it up to L-5? Should N.A.S.A. have Boeing take up bodies for cremation on the station during its fiery descent in order to make a profit? At L-5 would the I.S.S. be useful as ballast for a tethered new station or for wreck ‘diving’ for future recreational astronauts? Is it as simple as putting up and taking down a pup tent? Does N.A.S.A. have so many places in space where people can live that they don’t mind destroying actual existing structure? What about sticking an ion engine on it for a slow boost upward to L-5?

N.A.S.A. seems to lack a high frontier psychology regarding camps and safe emergency places in case something went wrong and optimal plans didn’t develop without a hitch. Pioneers don’t treat frontier posts as disposable items to jettison as soon as they can build a new one somewhere else. Like old spare farmhouses of the west that were abandoned decades before when a new home was built, old forts and farm homes and space stations should remain in existence as just in case facilities.

The I.S.S. in safe storage at a Lagrange point might be used for some presently unforeseen purpose like being an anchor point for various kinds of telescopes or communications devices. Like an old English mansion in might have additions some day to give it a new use. One might set some housekeeping and construction robot to work in it and let out the atmosphere while new components are added. Just throwing away past projects is the mind set of urban consumers of a disposable culture rather than of those accustomed to frontier challenges. What would the first explorers of Antarctica have given for a safe, warm place with a food supply on their return from the South Pole?