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Truly sad to hear, I'm confused why they didn't think about its descent when it was first raised though? I understand that more things are possible now, but the

• jjk166 3y ago
  They did think about its descent when it was first raised. The plan was always to deorbit it, but that plan was based on the assumption of Russian cooperation, which was indeed the entire idea behind the station. It's only under the geopolitical situation that developed two decades after the station started construction that this stopped being a safe option. Crashing the ISS into the Earth is far and away the best plan. There are really only three options - controlled reentry, uncontrolled reentry, and pushing it into such a high orbit that it will stay in space. Uncontrolled re-entry risks dropping a massive amount of hardware on potentially an inhabited area. Pushing it into a higher orbit requires an enormous amount of fuel, and it will become space junk, eventually getting broken up into tiny pieces that will pose a threat to other spacecraft. Purposefully deorbiting it is the only way to to ensure that it is disposed of safely. The ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2030 and deorbited in 2031, though Russia has announced it will be removing its modules from the station in 2024, the mission's original end date.