Artemis 1, NASA’s newest moon-bound rocket, successfully launched on November 16, 2022 at 1am. Although unmanned, the launch represents a significant step towards NASA’s goal of humans reaching the moon by 2025. With a new age of space exploration on the horizon, older programs are beginning to age out, most notably, the International Space Station.
The station is a staple of the night sky, gawked at by millions as it’s made its 26 thousand mile journey for the past 20 years. Having housed over 3,000 experiments and astronauts from 19 different countries, it’s become a beacon of international scientific collaboration.
On an early January morning in 2031, all one million pounds of it will be deorbited. It will, rather magnificently, come crashing down into the Pacific Ocean at Point Nemo, the furthest point from land on Earth.
According to NASA, the decommissioning of the ISS will mark their handing over of low-Earth orbit to commercial organizations. Following the decommissioning of the space station, NASA plans to purchase space on commercially-owned stations and satellites in which to conduct research. This is meant to ‘allow NASA to explore the Moon and Mars’ and would have NASA crew members temporarily conducting research in commercial facilities in lower Earth orbit.
On average, the International Space Station has cost NASA roughly 4 billion dollars a year. By decommissioning it, the agency will be able to channel funds toward its Artemis missions and further deep-space exploration. In addition to cost, logistical parts of the ISS have begun to get more challenging.
Cracks found in the walls by Russian cosmonauts along with aging technology have led to the station having become somewhat hobbled together over the years and are all reasons NASA cites for its retirement.
With the official launch of the Artemis program under way, the ISS has become a backdrop to NASA’s next endeavors. Over the next few months or so, the unmanned Orion spacecraft will orbit the moon, testing a myriad of its systems in preparation for the coming missions, before returning to Earth.
Artemis II, the first manned mission to the moon in over 50 years, is likely to happen in 2024 or later. The mission will take humans farther than they’ve ever been before, around the back of the moon in order to gather radiation and engineering data and assess the preparedness of the systems to land on the moon.
Artemis III, slated to happen in 2025 or later, will land the first woman and person of color on the moon. It will mark the human race’s return to physical space exploration. Astronauts will spend about 6 and a half days on the moon, gathering data from ice on the far side and soil samples as they go.
The time of the International Space Station is ending. In 2031, we will be closing the door on three decades marked by scientific discovery and innovation. The good news is, we’re not shuttering up the shop and going home. Instead, we’re shuttering up the shop and going on an adventure.
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