The ISS has been orbiting our earth for more than 20 years. But by 2031, the International Space Station is said to have had its day. NASA has now announced this. However, the final resting place of the ISS, which is about the size of a football field, will not be in space, but in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. In a controlled crash, the ISS will head for Point Nemo – that’s the place in the Pacific farthest from the mainland and any islands. However, the parts of the ISS that do not burn up when they enter the earth’s atmosphere will not be buried there alone. Because Point Nemo is the graveyard for space junk. The Russian space station Mir is already there, as well as more than 260 other disused spaceships.
But until the ISS actually retires, there are still eight years to go. According to ISS Director Robyn Gates, NASA wants to seize time: “The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a pioneering scientific platform in zero gravity. In our third decade, we are focused on solutions: building on our successful global partnership to explore space, continue medical and environmental benefits for humankind, and lay the foundation for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.”
Because the ISS will not have a successor. Rather, NASA wants to rely on commercial providers from 2030 and continue its research on private space stations. With the end of the ISS, the agency will save an estimated 1.3 billion US dollars a year. Money that is to flow into projects for the development of transport options for people to the moon and Mars in the future.
The ISS has been inhabited by people since the year 2000. More than 200 astronauts from 19 different countries lived on it.