National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced its plan that the International Space Station will be kept operated until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo. NASA says it plans to retire the International Space Station in 2031 by crashing it into an uninhabited stretch of the Pacific Ocean. Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, said in a press release that the private sector will be taking the lead on the development of future space station projects and that NASA will help ensure a smooth transition.
The report released by NASA said that its budget estimate assumed that the deorbit would happen in January 2031. ISS is the world’s largest habitable artificial satellite in space and was launched in 2000, being managed by five space agencies- NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).