Re: Make them an offer?
> I believe the issue with continuing with the ISS is its running costs
Yes. However, those costs are based on NASA's inefficient and wasteful rocketry costs. SpaceX can send stuff up at a fraction of what NASA spend.
The biggie seems to me to be the orbit. Since the ISS is essentially a russian vehicle, launched from Baikonur, the orbit is inclined at an angle from the KSC. So there is a significant problem with reaching it from a Florida launch. If SpaceX was to take over operations of the ISS, they'd probably want to launch from Kazakstan. Whether the USAians would be happy with that could be the deal-killer.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
