There have been some incidents with Russian modules and spacecraft over the years demonstrating the gradual decline in their capability, but so far it hasn't been determined to br worth the effort of figuring out if the sides can even be disconnected anymore.

The talk about private space stations isn't really about privatizing the existing ISS. There are private trips to there every once in a while (required to be led by any former astronaut at the ISS though).

Besides that maybe you're thinking of Axiom's space station, which is intended to have modules docking to the American side of the station and gradually building off of it until their modules can handle being independent, at which point the ISS modules would be disconnected and deorbited, leaving their private space station on its own.

One of the purposes of ISS, and other space programs (Apollo-Soyuz for example) was showcasing how nations can work together, and bringing hope for peace during the cold war. May sound naive, but that's the reason why nobody should be jettisoned off the space station - even if there are embargoes on the ground.

Obviously, the /s was meant to be implied. To think it was even remotely considered not /s is pretty sad.

“I’m just trolling.” Don’t do that here.

It's a silly comment leading into a more serious question. Everyone focuses on the least important part of the comment, and then feels self righteous

The edit window is still open.

> but that's the reason why nobody should be jettisoned off the space station

The PRC is banned from the ISS, due to NASA being legally forbidden from dealing with them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Amendment#History