Express By Tom Fish 6/12/2019
NASA rockets are resting in a remote “graveyard†where hundreds of fallen spacecraft are found, the US space agency has revealed.Point Nemo, Latin for no one, is approximately 4,000 metres deep and further from land than any point on Earth. This makes it the ideal spot to crash defunct NASA rockets and satellites. At least 260 spacecraft – mostly Russian – have been laid to rest there by NASA and assorted space agencies since the 1970s.
By far the largest was Russia’s MIR space lab, a 120-ton mass of metal that splashed down in 2001.
It is thought the International Space Station (ISS) will also end up in this watery grave in 2024.
The area prevents the increasing aggregate of dangerous orbital space junk capable of colliding with future satellites and rocket launches.
Astronomer Dr David Whitehouse said: â€Smaller satellites will burn up but pieces of larger ones will survive to reach the Earth’s surface.
“To avoid crashing on a populated area they are brought down near the point of oceanic inaccessibility.â€
More:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1139363/nasa-space-graveyard-spacecraft-hidden-buried-point-nemo-space-news
