Crash it into the Pacific Ocean: NASA’s plan to end the International Space Station in 2031

NASA’s International Space Station already has an expiration date. This is stated by the administration of the US government in a statement in which it also advances how and when said structure will return to earth. It will do so in January 2031, but the return process will begin five years earlier: in October 2026. It will be then when the ISS will begin to deorbit to end up in the South Pacific Ocean, specifically in an area called Point Nemo.

It will not be the first time that a ship has exploded in this area since Point Nemo has become the graveyard of spaceships as it is the point in the ocean that is farthest from land. Space nations such as the United States, Russia, Japan and European countries are estimated to have sunk more than 263 pieces of space debris there since 1971, according to CNN. The area is approximately 3,000 miles from the east coast of New Zealand and 2,000 miles north of Antarctica..

However, NASA explains in the report on the future of the ISS that the station will need help to carry out its return process. Thus, in addition to utilizing the propulsion capabilities of the ISS and its visiting vehicles, the global wildcat would require the assistance of additional visiting vehicles beyond the regular cadence of traffic to the ISS. “Not all visiting vehicles can be used to help,” they stress. In this sense, the administration of the US government together with its partners have concluded that it will take the power of three Russian Progress ships to take it out of orbit. However, they are also studying whether Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft will be able to participate as well, having recently expanded its propulsion capacity. This is indicated in the aforementioned report where they also indicate that the ISS would carry out thrust maneuvers that would guarantee a “safe atmospheric entry”.

Why does NASA’s International Space Station have to leave space?

While systems such as power, environmental control, environmental support, and communications can be fixed or replaced in orbit; the technical structure (radiator modules and structures) limits the technical life of the station. This primary structure is affected by dynamic loading (such as vehicle docking and undocking) and orbital thermal cycles. For this reason, both NASA and its international partners of the ISS are attentive to the safety of the operation of the station through different analyses. Taking into account the findings, NASA notes that “there is great confidence that the useful life of the ISS can be extended to 2030.” However, we will have to wait for the report being prepared by the Russian state corporation Roscosmos to guarantee that the useful life of the ISS extends until 2030 and not only until 2008, as indicated by the analysis carried out by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) , the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). At the same time, the ISS Partnership is examining recent technical problems on board the Russian segment, primarily the atmospheric leak in the Service Module.

NASA will delegate to the private sector

NASA’s intention, set out in a statement, indicates that it will make way for the private sector to develop and operate commercial low-Earth orbit destinations. “We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable and profitable destinations in space,” Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, says in the text. In fact, in the report on the future of the station they have detailed a comprehensive plan to guarantee a transition to commercial destinations after 2030, such as using the CLD program (Commercial LEO Destinations) as a testing ground to test and validate the experiments biological and physical scientists and technology before the lunar and Mars missions.

NASA’s goal is to be one of many customers of these commercial destination providers, buying only the goods and services the agency needs.