![]() And even if the station were to be abandoned in such a "graveyard orbit," the ISS would still pose hazards: because it is so old and unwieldy, its eventual disintegration would be inevitable and would generate enormous amounts of debris that could damage other satellites. But lofting so much mass so high would be extremely expensive. Theoretically, NASA and its collaborators could raise the ISS to an orbit at which it would leave Earth's atmosphere entirely. Most of the ISS's orbit-maintaining boosts come from a steady supply of Russian Progress cargo vehicles that, once docked with the station, periodically fire their engines to counteract the space station's constant sinking. Without periodic boosts, as a spacecraft in low-Earth orbit loses speed, it loses altitude as well, eventually sinking deep enough to break apart and burn up as it plunges through our planet's atmosphere. There, whatever goes up must come down, pulled back to our planet by a steady wash of speed-sapping atmospheric particles. The laboratory's doom comes from its location in low-Earth orbit, within the tenuous upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. "Although you hate to see it go, and it'll be sad when it's retired, it's really not practical to keep it on orbit indefinitely," says George Nield, president of the company Commercial Space Technologies and a former member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a long-standing committee that has urged the space agency to develop a clear strategy for the ISS's demise sooner rather than later. The ISS has been constantly inhabited ever since and has far surpassed its original target lifetime of 15 years.īut nothing lasts forever. And the space station's first crew-one astronaut and two cosmonauts-took up residence in November 2000. ![]() Its first modules-one from the U.S., and the other from Russia-reached orbit in late 1998. and Russia and is one of the very few areas of steadfast cooperation between both nations across decades of rocky relations. "In terms of civilian cooperation, I think many would describe it as the biggest project ever embarked upon in human history."Īlthough it is also supported by Canada, Japan and Europe, the ISS is chiefly a creation of the U.S. The ISS is "a key symbol of international and civilian cooperation," says Mai'a Cross, a political scientist at Northeastern University. The brutal ending is scheduled for early next decade but is already proving a delicate matter for aerospace engineering and international diplomacy. The agency has said it expects to pay nearly $1 billion for this service to avoid relying on multiple Russian vehicles. ![]() In the coming months, NASA will be evaluating commercial proposals for vehicles capable of "decommissioning" the ISS-that is, of safely dropping it into Earth's atmosphere to burn up. Yet despite its successes, the space station's days are numbered. You can find Tariq at and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network.For nearly a quarter century, the International Space Station (ISS) has continuously hosted astronauts and science experiments as an enduring and beloved bastion of humanity in low-Earth orbit. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. ![]() Before joining, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He became 's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. ![]() Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. ![]()
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