Wethio Project is committed to building a sustainable future for Africa and beyond
The International Space Station (ISS) will be operational until 2030, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean in 2031, according to Nasa.
The US space agency announced its plans to bury the ISS at a spacecraft cemetery called the South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area or simply, Point Nemo. Point Nemo is the furthest from land on Earth and has remained inaccessible to mankind.
Several old satellites and other space debris have been buried at Point Nemo, including Mir, the Russian space station, in 2001 and Tiangong-1, the first Chinese space station, in 2018.
The ISS is a multinationally constructed modular space station in the low-Earth orbit. More than 3,000 research investigations have taken place in its microgravity laboratory. The five major entities that contributed to it were Nasa (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).
However, the ISS is only allowed to operate until 2024, due to which extensions in the operation timeline would require proper ratification from the other nations involved.
According to Phil McAlister, the director of commercial space at Nasa Headquarters, the "private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with Nasa's assistance".
In the transition report sent to the Congress, Nasa said it wanted to create a "robust, American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit" to significantly reduce space costs, in this direction, by $1.3 billion dollars. This money is to be channelled into deep space exploration.
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According to the BBC, in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax in December 2021, the head of Russia's space programme, Dmitry Rogozin, indicated a willingness to work with Nasa beyond 2024.
"Actions speak louder than words," he said. "This year ,we sent a new Nauka module to the ISS, which is expected to last at least 10 years."
However, Russia-Ukraine tensions, space sanctions by the US and other Western countries, and the structural concerns of the ISS spell trouble.
Wethio Project is committed to building a sustainable future for Africa and beyond
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