The ISS is largely where it is due to a set of messy technical and political compromises: it needed to be in an orbit that both Soyuz and the Space Shuttle coul

The ISS is largely where it is due to a set of messy technical and political compromises: it needed to be in an orbit that both Soyuz and the Space Shuttle could reach. Because they both launched from places that aren't on the equator, all orbits reachable by them would be inclined, so there's only a limited set that both can get to. (Without doing a ruinously expensive plane change manoeuvre.) And of course the higher the orbit, the more fuel you need, which means less payload, so it ended up in quite a low orbit. Now the shuttle's gone, there's no realistic proposal for delivering heavy components to the station, so it could be reboosted into a higher orbit. You'd end up spending less fuel on stationkeeping, but more fuel on routine deliveries and crew transfers. I really have no idea whether this would be worthwhile. Anyone?