Elon Musk will launch ISS into the ocean’s mysterious ‘rocket graveyard’ – but NASA warns of 1,900-mile-wide re-entry ‘debris field’

A SPACEX capsule will guide the International Space Station back into orbit to be ignited, with its remains falling into the ocean.

Elon Musk’s company won a US$843 million contract to take down the old station in 2031, when it reaches the 32-year mark.

While it may seem like the end of an era for NASA, the agency is optimistic about the future. future.

Private companies are expected to launch their own space stations in 2030 to ensure that scientific research continues smoothly during the transition period.

This strategy will NASA more time and resources to focus on trips to the Moon and Mars.

However, these plans are only tentative for now, and the agency may choose to extend the life of the station if the commercial stations are not built in time.

The ISS was launched in 1998 as a collaboration between Russia and the U.Swith the change of astronauts two years later.

Europe, Japan and Canada contributed to the construction of the massive space laboratory, helping the ISS grow to the size of a football field by 2011.

NASA says the station was never intended to be dismantled in orbit, as such an effort would be expensive and risky for the astronauts dismantling it.

EspaçoX plans to use an oversized Dragon capsule similar to those that transport supplies to the ISS.

However, this spacecraft will have a much larger trunk, housing 46 engines – a record feat.

The Dragon capsule will launch a year and a half before the station plunges to its death.

It will push the ISS into Earth’s atmosphere about a year after the complex leaves its natural orbit.

Astronauts will still be on board as the station is slowly lowered closer to Earth.

“We will leave the crew onboard as long as possible so they are available to help maintain the station and keep it healthy,” ISS program manager Dana Weigel told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.

Six months before the station closes, the crew will return home.

As it launches into the atmosphere, the ISS will not magically disintegrate – NASA expects some pieces to survive, ranging in size from a toaster to a sedan.

These pieces will fall into a debris field about 1,900 kilometers long.

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Although NASA has delayed pinning down an exact location, the agency named the South Pacific Uninhabited Oceanic Area around Point Nemo in a 2022 report.

Point Nemo is an infamous “rocket graveyard” where many other projects have ended up.

Nicknamed “the most remote point in the world” Earth,” is in the middle of the South Pacific, almost 2,700 kilometers from the nearest piece of land.

Global space megapowers like the US, Russiaand Europe is believed to have shot down more than 263 space-related objects in the South Pacific between 1971 and 2018.

NASA’s first space station, Skylab, crash-landed in 1979, sending debris toward Western Australia despite pointing toward the Indian Ocean.

The agency had hoped that one of the first shuttle crews could use a rocket to control Skylab’s descent, but it was not ready in time.

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As for the ISS, NASA plans to intentionally preserve some small items from inside the station, such as the ship’s bell, logs and patched panels.

These memories will likely travel to Earth in EspaçoX supply ships in the last year and then be prepared for display in the museum.

“Unfortunately, we can’t bring home really big things,” said NASA’s Ken Bowersox.

While he would “love to try and save some (larger items),” Bowersox acknowledged that it makes more sense to tear everything down at once — nostalgia be damned.