NASA International Space Station: Retirement Plan Involves Crashing It Into Pacific Ocean's 'Spacecraft Cemetery'

NASA says the International Space Station will continue to operate until 2030. Afterward, it will be decommissioned by burning up on Earth's atmosphere and crashing its debris to an area of the ocean called "Spacecraft Cemetery."

The iconic ISS is a science laboratory positioned in low-Earth orbit. It was supposed to retire in 2024, but the White House approved extended operations up until 2030. NASA shares its shut down plans for the date.

NASA ISS 2030: The Spacecraft Cemetery

NASA said the ISS will crash in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo. This location was named after the submarine sailor in the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne.

Point Nemo is approximately 2,000 miles north of Antarctica and 3,000 miles off New Zealand's eastern coast. It is also known as the South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area because it is the farthest point from land, per NBCnews.

Taking advantage of its remote nature, many space-faring nations sunk their spacecraft debris in the area. This eventually created the nickname "Spacecraft Cemetery."

Note that the US, Russia, Japan, and European countries have sunk more than 263 pieces of pace debris since 1971. ISS will soon join those numbers in 2030.

ISS Retirement Plans in 2023

NASA researchers seem to be at peace with ISS's planned ending. The NASA Headquarters Director of Commercial Space, Phil McAlister, pointed out that commercially operated space platforms will eventually replace ISS. "The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA's assistance."

McAlister emphasized that NASA was ready to cooperate with the private sectors and help them "develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space." He also implied that the ISS would use its remaining years to facilitate the commercial industries' safe transition to space.

NASA International Space Station: Other Memorable Details

The ISS construction began in 1998, launched in 2000 was completed in 2011. It is a project collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, Russia's Roscosmos space program, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

In its operations, the space lab notably orbited more than 227 nautical miles above Earth and housed more than 200 astronauts from 19 different countries. All of this represents a continuous human presence in space.

According to ABC7 News. ISS is also the "home to many scientific firsts." The first item to be 3D-printed on space happened in 2014, and the first space-grown salad was sampled by astronauts in 2015. One NASA astronaut also sequenced DNA in space for the first time in 2016. Lastly, the fifth state of matter, Bose-Einstein condensate, was produced in space by NASA's Cold Atom Lab on the station in 2018.

The ISS has contributed many great things to humanity, so some fans might feel a little melancholic to see it go. Fortunately, there yet is another decade of space activities to look forward to.