International Space Station program with on-orbit refurbishment in mind. According to the Outer Space Treaty the United States is legally responsible for all modules it has launched. In ISS planning, NASA examined options including returning the station to Earth via shuttle missions (deemed too expensive, as the station(USOS) is not designed for disassembly and this would require at least 27 shuttle missions), natural orbital decay with random reentry similar to Skylab, boosting the station to a higher altitude (which would simply delay reentry) and a controlled targeted de-orbit to a remote ocean area. The technical feasibility of a controlled targeted deorbit into a remote
Bigelow Commercial Space Station was formed in 1999. By 2004, plans made public included assembly of multiple modules "into a manned space facility in low Earth orbit for both and funded research and for space tourism." Two more formal concepts have since been made public. By 2005, Bigelow space station plans had been further conceptualized into "Commercial Space Station Skywalker", or CSS Skywalker. In mid-2010, Bigelow announced their "Next-Generation Commercial Space Station"—later named "Space Complex Alpha". The initial dates for the Alpha complex were not achieved. In January 2013, the Alpha complex was specified to be an in-space assemblage of only two B330 modules,