why do we have to crash the ISS into the ocean? Can’t we send it out of Earth’s orbit safely, to crash on another planet, the sun or just keep going? Also: why can’t we do this with all the space junk that orbits the earth now?
In: 7
Things in orbit require a lot of extra energy to speed up and escape it to head off into space.
By contrast, you only need a little bit of energy to slow something like the ISS down enough to let gravity and atmospheric drag do the rest until it literally falls out the sky into the Pacific.
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