So I’ve just heard they’ve set a year of 2032 to decommission the International Space Station. Since if they just left it, its orbit would eventually decay and it would crash. Rather than have a million tons of metal crash somewhere random, they’ll control the reentry and crash it into the spacecraft graveyard in the pacific.
But why not push it out of orbit into space? Given that they’ll not be able to retrieve the station in the pacific for research, why not send it out into space where you don’t need to do calculations to get it to the right place.
In: Planetary Science
There was actually this idea to put the ISS in a “parking” orbit at a much much higher altitude than it currently sits. Given how large and heavy the ISS is though in conjunction with not having a true propulsion system the cost would be astronomical (no pun intended). This would basically make it a “space museum” for later generations. At the end of the day though NASA has a finite budget and need to make the best decisions they can with what they have.
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