Not a dumb question, official answers in [1] [2]. Summary is higher orbits have too much risk of debris strikes, and commercial operators were asked to submit

Not a dumb question, official answers in [1] [2]. Summary is higher orbits have too much risk of debris strikes, and commercial operators were asked to submit proposals but NASA received no feasible proposal: they aren't interested in the ageing and expensive to maintain ISS modules. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/iss-deorbit-analysis-summary.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/iss-deorbit-... [2] https://www.nasa.gov/faqs-the-international-space-station-transition-plan/ https://www.nasa.gov/faqs-the-international-space-station-tr...