I was reading about the Jules Verne docking at the ISS today and all of a sudden it occurred to me: instead of using the spacecraft fuel to de-orbit, what if it was placed in a higher orbit, and there was a ham package on board?

What a wonderful idea.

You might convince ESA to linger a bit before deorbit to conduct some experimentation using amateur radio but I suspect they will want to clear that double decker bus sized satellite from the sky.

And what goes up comes down. Bump Jules Verne up to 500km and it'll be back down at the ISS altitude in about ten years; if theres enough fuel for 1000 km the chances get better. But they'd probably want an inclination change at the very least.

73 Richard G3RWL