Popular Science

SPACECRAFT CEMETERY || Where The International Space Station Will Die

When the first piece of the International Space Station launched in 1998, the celestial lab was only expected to last until 2015. The ISS was—and still is—a functioning lab that does many kinds of scientific research. And it’s a testament to what international cooperation can achieve. But when its time for the program to end,…

Published

6 years ago

April 11, 2019

CYBER TECH TV

When the first piece of the International Space Station launched in 1998, the celestial lab was only expected to last until 2015.

The ISS was—and still is—a functioning lab that does many kinds of scientific research. And it’s a testament to what international cooperation can achieve.

But when its time for the program to end, the satellite will end up at Point Nemo, the farthest point from any land and life on Earth. More than 250 spacecraft have ended up there since 1971, and it’s more commonly known as the “spacecraft cemetery.”

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Producer/Video by: Jason Lederman

Narrator: Eleanor Cummins

Researcher: Shannon Stirone

Music: APM Music

Media: NASA, Prelinger Archives, Google Earth, Disney•Pixar (Finding Nemo)

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17 Comments

Alex MC

April 11, 2019 at 3:07 pm

this is kinda sad, not gonna lie.U were a real bro , ISS

Reply
De ViceCrimsin

April 11, 2019 at 3:36 pm

That’s a lot of raw material to just dispose of. I think it’s a bad idea

Reply
AZMATIK

April 11, 2019 at 3:40 pm

Anyone have any actual footage of NASA constructing this “space station”? The international fake station is a green screen joke. #NASALIES

Reply
- Chuck U Farley
  
  April 11, 2019 at 4:56 pm
  
  You’re silly you can see ISS with a telescope.
  
  Reply
- Matt Claus
  
  April 13, 2019 at 7:11 pm
  
  And there it is, a fine example of the not rare enough Americanis moronic.
  
  Reply
haynerbass

April 11, 2019 at 5:58 pm

Maybe it’s just me but why drop all of that poison into our oceans? Couldn’t we drop it onto the moon or fire it into the sun?

Reply
- Millillion
  
  April 12, 2019 at 4:14 am
  
  If we “dropped” it, it would end up on Earth anyway, using the rockets to boost it just makes it drop faster and makes it land in a specific spot. It would take a gargantuan and completely unfeasible amount of time, energy, and money to get the ISS to the moon, much less the sun. It’s coming back to Earth whether we like it or not unless we keep it up there until we have much more advanced rockets or decide to make it part of some permanent installation, so it’s best to make sure what little makes it to the ground lands in an uninhabited area of the ocean.
  
  Reply
- haynerbass
  
  April 12, 2019 at 6:58 am
  
  How would it end up on Earth if we send it to the moon or into the sun?+Millillion
  
  Reply
- haynerbass
  
  April 12, 2019 at 6:58 am
  
  How would it end up on Earth if we send it to the moon or into the sun?@Millillion
  
  Reply
- Dave Johnson
  
  April 13, 2019 at 9:31 pm
  
  +haynerbass @Millillion was playing with semantics. You said why not “drop it” on the moon or the sun. “dropping it” can only mean the earth in this context, becuase the earth is at the bottom of the ISS’s gravity well. To get it to the moon or sun, you’d have to expend a truly insane amount of energy to boost it out of orbit and move it to another gravity well like the moon or sun. And it would take less fuel to fly it out of the solar system, past Pluto, than to fly it to the sun.
  
  Reply
- Dave Johnson
  
  April 13, 2019 at 9:31 pm
  
  @haynerbass @Millillion was playing with semantics. You said why not “drop it” on the moon or the sun. “dropping it” can only mean the earth in this context, becuase the earth is at the bottom of the ISS’s gravity well. To get it to the moon or sun, you’d have to expend a truly insane amount of energy to boost it out of orbit and move it to another gravity well like the moon or sun. And it would take less fuel to fly it out of the solar system, past Pluto, than to fly it to the sun.
  
  Reply
Shiboline M'Ress

April 12, 2019 at 3:24 pm

Has it really been that long? ?

Reply
Mario Herrera

April 13, 2019 at 7:22 pm

Sorry to see it go!

Reply
Imran Anwar

April 13, 2019 at 8:09 pm

Why not use Progress’ 6000KG of fuel to give ISS s shove towards the sun? Let it keep going and sending data freely available on the internet (if there are no funds left to man the operation on earth) until it burns out near the sun.

Reply
- Dave Johnson
  
  April 13, 2019 at 9:12 pm
  
  Sorry, but that’s physically impossible. Going to the sun requires an enormous amount of energy — more, in fact, than leaving the solar system entirely. You couldn’t add that much delta V to the ISS, which weighs about 500 tons, with 6000kg of fuel — perhaps 500 times that much fuel would be able to do it. Also, the entire station would fail within hours of leaving low earth orbit. It’s not designed to operate anywhere but where it is; boosting it to a higher orbit or out of orbit would cause virtually every temperature regulation, power generation, and other maintenance subsystem on the station to fail catastrophically.
  
  Reply
MichiganDave

April 13, 2019 at 9:44 pm

She has a good voice.

Reply
Charles Daliere

April 13, 2019 at 10:19 pm

What would it cost to send the station outward away from earth? It could be loaded up with equipment for exploration of our solar system.

Reply

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Thanks to DuckDuckGo for sponsoring this video! Try Privacy Pro free for 7 days at

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