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How NASA Plans to Destroy the International Space Station, and the Dangers Involved

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 22 2022, @08:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the crash-and-burn dept.

upstart writes:

How NASA plans to destroy the International Space Station, and the dangers involved:

NASA has announced plans for the International Space Station (ISS) to be officially decommissioned in 2031. After dozens of launches since 1998 got the station up and into orbit, bringing it down will be a feat of its own—the risks are serious if things go wrong.

NASA's plans for the decommissioning operation will culminate in a fiery plunge into the middle of the Pacific Ocean—a location called Point Nemo, also known as the "spacecraft graveyard," the furthest point from all civilisation.

Finding Point Nemo will be the final stop in a complex and multi-staged mission to transition the operations of the ISS to new commercial space stations, and to bring the remaining structure safely down to Earth.

Originally commissioned for a 15-year lifespan, the ISS is outliving all expectations. It has already been in operation for 21 years, and NASA has given the go-ahead for one more decade, thereby doubling its total planned time in orbit.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 22 2022, @11:33AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 22 2022, @11:33AM (#1223866)

    I'm old enough to remember Skylab. From Wikipedia, "It disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979, scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia."

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 22 2022, @04:55PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 22 2022, @04:55PM (#1223944) Journal

    I remember that too.

    I remember the news coverage too. Several interesting facts the news pointed out:

    • The odds of anyone being hit by Skylab was 150 to 1 (no source for this was given)
    • The odds of YOU personally, not just anyone, but YOU being hit by Skylab, was about 150 Million to 1
    • Most home owner's insurance policies covered damage from falling space junk (yes, really that was on the TV news)

    I wonder if the insurance company would then claim the space junk was now their property? That was not mentioned.

    It was summer. I was starting college in the fall. The super modern (at that time) cash register I operated had 4K BASIC inside it according to the tech I quizzed during a service call.

    --
    Don't put a mindless tool of corporations in the white house; vote ChatGPT for 2024!

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday February 22 2022, @06:01PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday February 22 2022, @06:01PM (#1223974) Journal

      I wonder if the insurance company would then claim the space junk was now their property?

      Why would they? If you get hit by a car, does the health insurance that covers your health cost then own the car that hit you?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.