"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...
In article ,

One obvious solution is to have the tug supplied by one of the station
partners. Then only the tug is an insurance issue, still not trivial
but
vastly more tractable than the station itself.

People are already thinking in that direction. When Boeing asked
SpaceX
for a quote on freight delivery to an orbital fuel depot, what came
back
was a quote for delivery to a point 1km from the depot.

What of a small actively controlled "harpoon" on the end of a kilometre
plus long fishing line? While not as comprehensive as a tug, it might
be somewhat cheaper.

Perhaps it is a technique more suited to retrieving the payloads from
mass launchers.

Pete.