The Clock Is Ticking

The station is wearing out. It was designed for about a 15-year life, but it has been running nonstop since 2000 — well past its planned retirement. Hairline cracks have turned up in the oldest Russian module, and slow air leaks have become a recurring headache for the crew.

There is no way to simply park it forever. Without regular boosts, the thin atmosphere at its altitude would drag it down on its own. So NASA has set a deliberate end date: a controlled return to Earth around 2031.

The ending is already planned in detail. Around 2031, a purpose-built SpaceX vehicle will dock with the roughly 420-ton station and push it down into the atmosphere on a steep, one-way path. Most of it will burn up; the heaviest surviving chunks are aimed at Point Nemo, the spot in the South Pacific farther from any land than anywhere else on Earth. It is already a quiet graveyard for old spacecraft — and it will soon swallow the largest one yet.