The ISS has been a big progress point in space expeditions, launched by five different corporations from five different locations. Now, NASA has made the decision to bring the ISS down in 2031.
“This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit,” said Robyn Gatens, the director of the ISS at NASA. NASA also plans to move to commercial-operated space stations, giving money to three different companies to create private space stations orbiting the earth. By doing so, NASA will save a ton of money, “approximately $1.3 billion in 2031, ramping up to $1.8 billion by 2033,” according to the International Space Station Transition Report. The report also says NASA will use this money to increase their deep space exploration projects.
NASA reports that the organization will crash the ISS at Point Nemo, also known as the “Spacecraft Cemetery.” This plot of sea, 3,000 miles off the east coast of New Zealand and 2,000 miles north of Antarctica, has been the crash site of more than 250 pieces of space junk. According to CNN, “the ISS is aging, cracks are appearing in its facade, spaceborne debris is hammering the exterior, and tensions between the United States and its primary ISS partner, Russia, are at all time highs.” Hence NASA’s plan to crash it. NASA says the ISS is safe to keep working on projects until 2030, and that the current decade will be the ISS’ busiest.
Overall, the ISS served as one of the most important progressions in space. It has and will achieve a lot, even as it approaches its decommission.