Why is the ISS going to be deorbited?

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NASA plans to deorbit the ISS sometime around 2030. Building something the size of the ISS in orbit is a huge undertaking and NASA keeps talking about wanting to build new space stations or a moon base, so why not leave the ISS in space and reuse it rather than literally throw the whole thing away?

In: Planetary Science

35 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because it is a flying bullet. All the pieces of it are flying bullets. Anything breaks off, it is a flying bullet to pierce anything else in orbit.

A fleck of paint at orbital speed.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/4hni3e/window_pit_from_orbital_debris_on_sts007_what_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/4hni3e/window_pit_from_orbital_debris_on_sts007_what_a/)

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