The ISS will be deorbited and sunk in the Pacific Ocean in early 2031 – NASA

The International Space Station may be deorbited in January 2031, should from NASA’s plan to transition from operating the ISS to using commercial stations in low Earth orbit.

According to the latest budget estimate from the aerospace agency, the operation of the ISS will last until 2030.

The NASA report notes that the ISS will be brought down from low Earth orbit, the engines on ships docked to it will be turned on, after which the station will be flooded in the “Spaceship Graveyard” in the South Pacific Ocean.

In 2019, NASA announced the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) project, under which private aerospace companies will receive funding to create an “economic environment” in low Earth orbit. One of the important points, according to the report, is the creation of space stations for transporting commercial cargo and conducting scientific experiments, recalls Interfax.

The International Space Station consists of 17 modules, five of which were launched over 20 years ago, and nine more over 10 years ago.