NASA will destroy the ISS in 2031 – the station will be sent to the “spacecraft graveyard”

The leadership of the American space agency NASA published a report in which they talked about plans to de-orbit the International Space Station (ISS). The large-scale outer space science lab, whose structure today weighs almost 450 tons, will continue to function until 2031, after which it will be dropped into the most remote point on the planet due to further inefficiency.

In an ideal scenario, the ISS will slowly descend from its current height of 408 km to the point of free fall. As the altitude decreases, the station will encounter an increasingly dense atmosphere, which will lead to an increase in resistance and acceleration of movement. To avoid damage to the population from the destruction of the body during the process of heating, NASA will send the ISS to the uninhabited region of the South Pacific Ocean, near Cape Nemo.

People called Nemo the graveyard of spacecraft, because it is a huge, free and completely empty space. This is where decommissioned spacecraft are sent when they return to Earth, so that no harm is done to the environment. As the ISS approaches Point Nemo, the operators will fire up the engines of numerous modules one last time and produce a violent push for an emergency landing.

The Director General of NASA, in a speech to Congress, noted that the ISS has been a “beacon of peaceful international scientific cooperation” for more than 20 years, but its mission goals will be completed by the end of this decade. The agency expects commercial space platforms to form the backbone of space science in the future, and has already announced a crew order for “at least two or possibly more astronauts” aboard such a station by the early 2030s.

Source: Trash Box

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