Supervise deorbit from on board?!
No thanks! Although if your re-entry vehicle is controlled from earth you mght not have a lot of choice in the matter...
Today marks 21 years since Russia's space station, Mir, returned to Earth. As the rhetoric from Russian space agency Roscosmos intensifies, it is worth taking a look back at the deorbit of the Mir complex, the first components of which were launched during the Soviet era. Assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) was …
Sounds like a job for Slim Pickens to me...
IIRC, it was a getting a bit mouldy up there and not much they seemed to be able to do about it. I very much doubt they could have moved it up and eventually re-occupied it. While sad to see it end it's orbital life, I suspect from the various "incidents" in its later life, it was becoming a death trap.