For decades, the ISS has been a beacon of science, technology, and engineering.
It’s been home to humanity’s best and brightest and is an emblem of what’s possible when we all
work together. But what happens when the ISS nears the end of its life?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question:
why is NASA planning to crash the International Space Station?
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The ISS is easily the most famous space station mankind has ever built, and it’s been stoically
orbiting our planet since 1998. Despite its fame, however, it wasn’t the first space station – nor
was it the second, or even the third. The very first space station, Salyut 1, was launched into
orbit by the Soviet Union in April 1971. Salyut itself was a resounding success,
but the mission was overshadowed by tragedy. The first crew to occupy it all sadly died,
although this happened while they were aboard Soyuz 11 on their way home from a successful
mission on Salyut. Soyuz depressurized and all three aboard were killed. Because of the loss of
the cosmonauts, Salyut 1’s mission was terminated. To this day, those cosmonauts are the only three
people to die while actually in the vacuum of space. Their deaths were an ominous lesson
about what happens when the human body is exposed to this extreme environment.
Salyut was quickly followed by the first American space station, Skylab, launched in 1973. Skylab
was in operation for less than twelve months, but remained in orbit for years and was an icon
of the American space program. Three successful missions were carried out on it and we learned
an unprecedented amount about outer space from the experiments undertaken. The Soviets also
launched several additional Salyut stations, and in 1986, the space station Mir. After the collapse
of the USSR, Mir remained in operation under Russian command, enduring until the mid-90s.
Every single space station that reached the end of its life has burned up on re-entry
into Earth’s atmosphere. It happened with Salyut, Skylab, and Mir, with most of them aiming for the
ocean. Having said that, some parts of Skylab did crash to the ground in Western Australia due to an
error. Luckily, nobody was injured. Skylab’s disintegration was the biggest event of all,
but it will likely be overshadowed by the closure of the ISS in the future. Skylab was a US station,
but the ISS is used by space agencies and astronauts of all nationalities,
making its demise a global event like no other. This is set to occur in 2031, when the station
will have been operating for an incredible 33 straight years. The ISS is only going to be
destroyed once it really does reach the end of its lifespan and it’s no longer safe for
human habitation. Given the hostility of space, with the freezing cold temperatures, radiation,
solar winds, and fields of debris, three decades is a long time. There will simply come a point
where repairing the ISS isn’t worth the cost or danger to life, and it’ll be safer to bring it
back down to Earth. NASA will direct it to a place called “Point Nemo”, the so-called
“most remote place on Earth”. Point Nemo is a spot in the Pacific Ocean that is as far away
from land as it’s possible to be, significantly reducing the risk of ISS debris doing any damage.
NASA’s calculations were slightly off with Skylab, but the ISS is much larger. If NASA were to make
an error when steering the ISS into the sea in 2031, the potential for harm is much greater.
Once crashing down, the space station will settle into its new home at the bottom of the ocean.
While this obviously isn’t ideal from a pollution standpoint, neither is leaving it in space. If it
was left up there, it could potentially fall from orbit and crash into Earth in a non-controlled
entry, which would be far more dangerous. It would also be dangerous to astronauts in the future,
becoming the biggest and deadliest piece of space garbage they’d need to avoid.
It will, of course, be sad to see the ISS go, and we’re sure that, like Skylab, some pieces
will be recovered for permanent display in museums. But it’s not the only space station
currently in operation. As of 2022, China is still hard at work on the Tiangong space station.
It’s not the country’s first space station, after the launch of Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2
in the 2010s, both bow deorbited. But it is the most ambitious and is set to stay in orbit above
Earth for a long time. Late 2023 is set to see the first crewed missions to Tiangong so that
Chinese astronauts, called “taikonauts”, can finish off the construction. Much of the work
will already have been done by robotic arms as the modules launch, however.
The reason China is constructing its own separate space station is that Chinese
astronauts aren’t allowed aboard the ISS. There is still collaboration between the CNSA
and other space agencies. But US legislation in 2011 officially banned NASA from working
with the Chinese government and affiliated organizations, due to national security concerns.
Soon enough, however, Tiangong could be the only operational space station.
Fortunately, there are, of course, plans to build more space stations.
With so many private companies getting involved in space exploration now, eventually building space
stations is a natural next step from satellites, launch vehicles, and landers. NASA itself is also
working on plans for a commercial space station to replace the ISS, and have narrowed down their
list to three private companies: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman.
For space research to continue, we need a low-Earth orbit space station,
and this would work best as a collaboration between different countries. There are also
plans to build a space station orbiting the moon, the so-called “Lunar Gateway”. NASA’s
return moonshot keeps being revamped and delayed, so it’s still not clear whether
the Lunar Gateway will actually go ahead, but as of writing it’s set for launch in late 2024.
This would enable more crewed moon missions and moon landings, and is also a vital part of NASA’s
efforts to eventually send humans to Mars by the end of the decade. It’s going to be the base
humans can use to descend to the moon and explore the south pole, which is the best location on the
moon for a lunar outpost on the surface. The more accessible we can make the moon the better, and
with the Gateway, future missions will have a far easier time than the manned Apollo missions did.
In February 2022, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, took to
Twitter in response to economic sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine. He warned ominously
that Russian engines control the International Space Station’s orbit, and that it might
suddenly crash into “into the United States or Europe”. Or even into India or China.
Due to a video shared by a Russian state news program,
there were also concerns that Russia could strand American astronaut Mark Vande Hei
on the ISS. Vande Hei was scheduled to return to Earth aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz.
Fortunately, these fears proved baseless. Rogozin’s Tweets were just online trolling.
And Roscosmos had no intention of stranding Vande Hei. It’s highly unlikely that Russia would do
something as drastic as crashing the ISS into another country. Half of the ISS was constructed
by Russia and is operated by Roscosmos, costing the country billions of dollars.
Hopefully though, as a commercial endeavor,
NASA’s replacement space station will be able to avoid the complex politics that surround the ISS.
Now that private companies like SpaceX are providing transport to and from space,
the US won’t need to rely on Russia’s Soyuz to reach this new station either.
Though it will be sad to see it go in 2031, the ISS needs to be disposed of properly, and
that means crashing it down into the middle of the ocean. Watching it crash will be a dramatic event,
likely widely televised. In a way, the end of the ISS will bring us together just as much
as its construction did. It’s something we can all be proud of and that we can
all marvel at in its final moments for all the incredible discoveries it brought.
And that’s why NASA is planning to crash the International Space Station.
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