A fiery end? How the ISS will end its life in orbit
1 year, 10 months ago

A fiery end? How the ISS will end its life in orbit

BBC  

How the ISS will end its life in orbit Nasa Over the past two decades, the International Space Station has grown to an enormous 400 tonnes, so deorbiting it is a huge challenge Drift into the wrong part of the Pacific Ocean in eight years, and you might be in for a shock. "The space station has been a huge success," says Josef Aschbacher, the head of the European Space Agency, one of the more than a dozen partners in the programme. This will be the largest re-entry in history and, in March, Nasa asked Congress for funding to start development of a "space tug" that might be needed to perform the task – a spacecraft that can push the station back into the atmosphere. "Nasa is hedging its bets on Russian participation," says Wendy Whitman Cobb, a space policy expert from the US Air Force's School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. A Nasa spokesperson said the agency "welcomes proposals for new and innovative ideas" but at this time Nasa "has not called for nor received proposals to repurpose major structural parts of the International Space Station".

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How NASA plans to destroy International Space Station in 2031
3 years, 1 month ago

How NASA plans to destroy International Space Station in 2031

Firstpost  

The plans for the decommissioning operation will culminate in a fiery plunge into the middle of the Pacific Ocean – a location called Point Nemo, also known as the ‘spacecraft graveyard’ Cambridge: Nasa has announced plans for the International Space Station to be officially decommissioned in 2031. In the planned, controlled, de-orbit operation for the ISS, newly built modules will …

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