A Look Inside the Deep-Sea Graveyard for Retired Spacecraft

The International Space Station still has a long way to go before it is decommissioned in 2030, but we’re getting a glimpse of the “space cemetery” where it will be buried.

According to NASA’s International Space Station Transition Report, Point Nemo, a distant, deserted part of the Pacific Ocean, will end the line for the ISS.

NASA claimed that the International Space Station would be decommissioned in 2030. Credit: Getty

“This is the largest ocean area without any islands. It is just the safest where the long fallout zone of debris after a re-entry fits into,” said Holger Krag, Head of the Space Safety Program Office at the European Space Agency.

Rockets Wasteland

Because of the ISS’s huge size, it may not completely burn up before hitting the ground when it deorbits back to Earth in 2031, according to NASA.

This is why it is being sent to the most isolated location on the world.

The ISS will return to Earth in 2031, jumping from Point A to Point B. Nemo Getty Images.

The area is three thousand miles off the coast of New Zealand and 2,000 miles north of Antarctica, making it the farthest point from human civilization and land.

Point Nemo is the most isolated location on the planet, where numerous countries have dumped their space debris. Getty Images

Since the 1970s, several countries have thrown their space debris over the enigmatic location dubbed from Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

Russia’s Mir space station sank into the sea in 2001. Despite its 143-ton weight, only 20 tons of the station is submerged in the sea.

Kiona Smith Strickland added:

“There’s a lot of space history down there, but of course, none of these spacecraft are just sitting neatly on the ocean floor in one piece. Or even two pieces.Re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere is a violence, destructive process for any object that tries it, whether it’s a meteor or a space station.”

The International Space Station (ISS) was partly launched in November 1998, with more sections arriving until the first astronaut crew arrived in 2000.

According to a news statement, the Biden administration extended the station’s operations until 2030 to allow continuation of the innovative research being undertaken, according to NASA.

The Biden Administration prolonged the ISS program through 2030.Getty Images

NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson, added that it is a beach of peaceful international scientific cooperation that has produced immense scientific, educational, and technical achievements to benefit mankind for more than 20 years.

According to a press statement, NASA has selected three US businesses to create commercial space destinations: Blue Origin, Nanoracks LLC, and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation.

“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance,” said NASA’s director of commercial space, Phil McAlister.

He went on to say that NASA intends to guarantee a “smooth transition to commercial destinations once the International Space Station retires in 2030.”