THE International Space Station still has many years before its retirement in 2030, but now we’re getting insight into the “space graveyard” where it will be buried.
Point Nemo, a remote, uninhabited area of the Pacific Ocean is set to be the end of the line for the ISS, according to NASA’s International Space Station Transition Report.
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“This is the largest ocean area without any islands. It is just the safest where the long fallout zone of debris after a re-entry fits into,” said Holger Krag, Head of the Space Safety Program Office at the European Space Agency.
Due to the massive size of the ISS, it’s passive it might not entirely burn up before reaching the ground when it deorbits back to Earth in 2031, said NASA.
This is why it’s being sent to the most remote area on the planet.
The area is the farthest point from human civilization and land – three thousand miles off the coast of New Zealand and 2,000 miles. north of Antarctica.
Many nations have dumped their space junk around the mysterious area, named after Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, since the 1970s.
Russia’s Mir space station took its plunge in the water grave back in 2001. Despite weighing 143 tons, only 20 tons of the station sits in the ocean.
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“There’s a lot of space history down there, but of course, none of these spacecraft are just sitting neatly on the ocean floor in one piece. Or even two pieces,” wrote Kiona Smith Strickland for Gizmodo.
“Re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere is a violence, destructive process for any object that tries it, whether it’s a meteor or a space station.”
WHAT COMES NEXT
The ISS was partially launched in November 1998, with more pieces following until the first astronaut crew arrived at the station in 2000.
The station’s operations were extended until 2030 by the Biden administration to “enable continuation of the groundbreaking research being conducted,” said NASA in a press release.
In a statement, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said it “is a beach of peaceful international scientific collaboration and for more than 20 years has returned enormous scientific, educational and technological developments to benefit humanity.”
Three US companies -Blue Origin, Nanoracks LLC and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation – have been chosen by NASA to develop commercial space destinations, according to a press release.
“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance,” said NASA’s director of commercial space, Phil McAlister.
He added that NASA hopes to ensure “a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030.”
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