The International Space Station already has its grave picked out for it.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced its plans for the ISS on Monday, stating that it intends to keep the station in flight until 2030. The space agency will then send the station crashing into a segment of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo.
“The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,” said Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station, in a press statement. “This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.”
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“We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow,” Gatens added.
The station had been previously authorized to fly until 2028, reported Space.com.
The ISS will be replaced by commercially operated space platforms designed by companies such as Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, NASA said. NASA has also partnered with Houston-based Axiom Space to launch several modules to the ISS starting in 2024, which will later detach and form a separate lab. These separate modules will ideally be set up before the decommissioning of the ISS in 2030 so that NASA can continue research in low-gravity environments.
“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space,” said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA.
“The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030,” McAlister adds.
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NASA’s commercial deals are the first phase in a two-phase effort to encourage the development of commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, according to NASA’s International Space Station Transition Report.
The second phase will then place the burden of employing and launching astronauts into low orbit on companies such as Blue Origin, thus allowing NASA to focus on things such as deep-space exploration, the report claims.
The crashing process, known as deorbiting, has developed since NASA’s Skylab fell out of orbit in 1979. Engineers from the United States and Russia have been developing plans for the eventual crash of the ISS so that the 400-ton object’s descent is controlled. This controlled descent will help ensure that the ISS does not land somewhere and kill people, reported Space.com.
