It’s a rule nearly as old as human language itself. What goes up, must come down. NASA finally managed to violate that rule a few times in recent decades when it launched missions taking vehicles so far away from the Earth that they wouldn’t return on their own (such as Voyager) or dumped them on other planets they couldn’t escape from, like the Mars landers. But for the most part, the rule has held true. The same can be said for the International Space Station. Nearly everyone at NASA agrees that the ISS needs to be deorbited at some point, likely by 2030, give or take a couple of years. But there is a key difference that makes the ISS unique in this regard. The ISS was sent up in many stages and assembled in orbit. The total craft now weighs in excess of 400 tons. Bringing it down safely is easier said than done. (Space News)
NASA is faced with the challenge of safely deorbiting,…
