NASA to crash International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean

[Elderberry]

American Military News 2/1/2022

NASA is moving forward with plans to take the International Space Station out of orbit in 2031 and crash it into the Pacific Ocean, according to the space agency’s International Space Station Transition Report released Monday. NASA explained the ISS will continue operating through 2030 in order to maintain a United States presence in space until private industry operators develop commercial replacements.

“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space,” said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, in a statement.

“The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030,” he added.

More: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/02/nasa-to-crash-international-space-station-into-the-pacific-ocean/

[Elderberry]

History and Timeline of the ISS

ISS National Laboratory

https://www.issnationallab.org/about/iss-timeline/

Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today. The International Space Station (ISS) took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble. It is the result of unprecedented scientific and engineering collaboration among five space agencies representing 15 countries. The space station is approximately the size of a football field: a 460-ton, permanently crewed platform orbiting 250 miles above Earth. It is about four times as large as the Russian space station Mir and five times as large as the U.S. Skylab.

The idea of a space station was once science fiction, existing only in the imagination until it became clear in the 1940s that construction of such a structure might be attainable by our nation. As the Space Age began in the 1950s, designs of “space planes” and stations dominated popular media. The first rudimentary station was created in 1969 by the linking of two Russian Soyuz vehicles in space, followed by other stations and developments in space technology until construction began on the ISS in 1998, aided by the first reusable spacecraft ever developed: the American shuttles.

Until recently, U.S. research space onboard the ISS had been reserved for mostly government initiatives, but new opportunities for commercial and academic use of the ISS are now available, facilitated by the ISS National Lab.

ISS Historical Timeline

    Reagan directs NASA to build the ISS
    January 25, 1984

    "Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today". President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address directs NASA to build an international space station within the next 10 years.

First ISS Segment Launches

First U.S.-built component launches
December 4, 1998

Unity  Node 1 module—the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station— launches into orbit two weeks later during the STS-88 mission. Joining Unity with the Zarya module was the first step in the assembly of the orbiting laboratory.

First Crew to Reside on Station
November 2, 2000

NASA Astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev become the first crew to reside onboard the station. Expedition 1 spent four months onboard completing tasks necessary to bring the ISS "to  life" and began what is now more than 20 years of continuous human presence in space.

November 20, 1998

The first segment of the ISS launches: The Zarya Control Module launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Zarya (translates to "sunrise") supplied fuel storage, battery power and rendezvous and docking capability for Soyuz and Progress space vehicles.

U.S. Lab Module Added
February 7, 2001

Destiny, the U.S. Laboratory module, becomes part of the station. The lab—that increased onboard  living space by 41%—continues to be the primary research laboratory for U.S. payloads.

U.S. Lab Module Recognized as Newest U.S. National Laboratory
December 30, 2005

Congress designates the U.S. portion of the ISS as the nation's newest national laboratory to maximize its use for other U.S. government agencies and for academic and private institutions.

European Lab Joins the ISS
February 7, 2008

The European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory becomes part of the station.

Japanese Lab Joins the ISS
March 11, 2008

The first Japanese Kibo laboratory module becomes part of the station.

ISS 10-Year Anniversary
November 2, 2010

The ISS celebrates its 10-year anniversary of continuous human occupation. Since Expedition 1 in the fall of 2000, 202 people had visited the station.

NASA Issues Cooperative Agreement
February 2011

NASA issues a cooperative agreement notice for a management partner.

NASA Selects the ISS National Lab
July 2011

NASA selects the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space to manage the ISS National Lab.



The First ISS National Lab Research Flight
September 30, 2013

Proteins can be grown as crystals in space with nearly perfect three-dimensional structures useful for the development of new drugs. The ISS National Lab's protein crystal growth (PCG) series of flights began in 2013, allowing researchers to utilize the unique environment of the ISS.

[rustynail]

If it is not taken over or shot down by then.

[Fishrrman]

Sell it to SpaceX (or somebody else) and let them turn it into a HIGH-buck "space hotel".
Offer 30-day trips into space...

[Kamaji]

Has the orbit irretrievably decayed, or are they just running short of funding?

[Elderberry]

Has the orbit irretrievably decayed, or are they just running short of funding?

Neither. It is just getting to the end of its service life.

[Kamaji]

Neither. It is just getting to the end of its service life.

Is it still useable, however?  After all, Hubble is well past its use-by date, and it's still going strong.

In other words, would it make sense to leave it up there and sell it off to a third party, like Bezos?

[AARguy]

You forgot the Obama era, when we had to beg a ride from the Russians because we had no vehicles able to get us there. (BIG NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT) Trump got us back in the game using American rockets with a big NASA contract to SPACEX.

[Elderberry]

Is it still useable, however?  After all, Hubble is well past its use-by date, and it's still going strong.

In other words, would it make sense to leave it up there and sell it off to a third party, like Bezos?

They are always having problems with the Russian Modules. And if it were to be sold, it would be complicated as there are around 25 countries involved. USA, Russia, Japan, and 22 countries of the European Space Agency.

[Kamaji]

They are always having problems with the Russian Modules. And if it were to be sold, it would be complicated as there are around 25 countries involved. USA, Russia, Japan, and 22 countries of the European Space Agency.

Fair enough.  I'd forgotten that it was basically a Frankenstein monster.  Probably best to just crash it into the ocean.

[Elderberry]

And Bezos already claimed: 

•   Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin unveiled its plan for a private space station called “Orbital Reef,” which it expects to deploy between 2025 and 2030.
•   Blue Origin describes the Orbital Reef station, which would be habitable for up to 10 people, as a “mixed use business park” in space.
•   The company’s primary partner for the station is Sierra Space, a subsidiary of aerospace contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation — with the team also including Boeing, Redwire Space and Genesis Engineering.

And none of his rockets have ever achieved Low Earth Orbit.   His manned "Sounding Rocket" doesn't orbit.

[Elderberry]

NASA's future is in private space companies' hands

AXIOS by Miriam Kramer 12/7/2021

https://www.axios.com/nasa-private-spaceflight-plans-5a5710e6-5223-4da3-8c5d-5a712e1d862e.html

The private space players who will drive NASA's plans for the coming decade are declaring themselves and defining the stakes.

Why it matters: NASA plans to focus on getting people to Mars and the Moon, and its deep space exploration ambitions hinge on the agency being able to successfully hand over major operations in low-Earth orbit to private companies.

    The space agency hopes companies will build private space stations that its astronauts can use and to continue to buy space on private rockets for launching its satellites and other payloads to orbit and beyond.
    NASA's "big experiment" right now is to test where these commercial partnerships work, the Planetary Society's Casey Dreier told Axios.

What's happening: Last week, NASA announced it would award multimillion-dollar contracts to three teams of commercial space companies to start designing and building privately operated space stations.

    Those space stations — to be built by Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and Nanoracks with partners — are expected to act as hubs where NASA astronauts will be able to live and work after the International Space Station ends.
    "You see the emergence of the set of players that will be active in a commercialized [low-Earth orbit] future, and then beyond," the Secure World Foundation's Ian Christensen told Axios.

More at link.

[AARguy]

Ok, I'm old. After I retired from the Army I went to work for Lockheed. They sent me to NASA-Houston as part of a project which sought to eliminate duplication of effort, integrate some virtual reality controls we had into robot extravehicular excursions (to reduce human excursions), and test some remote repair systems which allowed astronauts to mimic the hand movements of maintenance techs back on earth rather than learn a million different tasks. Neat stuff. Well, in the late 1990's it was.
I had the opportunity to stand behind a cosmonaut and observe as he sat at a console in a simulator as he practiced docking maneuvers with the space station.
It was an exciting time.
Now the magic seems to be gone. They're going to let the space station get thrown out like trash. Well, I'm still young enough to enjoy the jacuzzi and the grandkids and remember the sign over the employee entrance at NASA-Houston which read, "The meek shall inherit the earth... the rest of us are going to the STARS!"

[Elderberry]

I worked at JSC for Lockheed until they didn't need an ancient Shuttle tester anymore. Little did I know that the ISS would outlive the Shuttle. I wanted to hang on to support the Shuttle replacement like some of my coworkers who were Apollo techs that came back to support the Shuttle, but too much time went by. I did get called back, in 2015, to write a preliminary test plan for the EM-1 flight(now Artemis), that was scheduled to launch in 2016. I started at Ford Aerospace. And the contract carousel spun me through several companies until I ended up at Lockheed.

[Elderberry]

International Space Station is retiring by late 2030: Here’s what are NASA’s plans up next

Financial Express 2/4/2022

https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/international-space-station-is-retiring-by-late-2030-heres-what-are-nasas-plans-up-next/2425870/

NASA informed that the operations of the ISS will be transitioned to a low-Earth orbit destination.

NASA informed that the operations of the ISS will be transitioned to a low-Earth orbit destination. The space station in microgravity is entering its third and most productive decade.

ISS re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere will happen in January 2, 31. The altitude of the spacecraft will be lowered  before it begins its descent into “South Pacific Oceanic Uninhibited Area” at a place called Point Nemo.

Initially ISS was meant to be operative for 15 years but in 2014 its span was extended in space to another 10 years.

ISS will be replaced by “one or more commercially-owned and -operated” space platforms, Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement. He further suggested the next space platform will be from private sectors that are now “technically and financially capable” of building and operating a low Earth orbit destination with NASA’s assistance.

By renting space to commercial platforms, NASA will save up to $1.3 billion in 2031 alone. The money saved can be utilised in the space agency’s deep space exploration projects, NASA director informed. But before the retirement, ISS has ambitious goals in the upcoming decade including using it as an analog for NASA’s upcoming Mars transmit mission