The International Space Station (ISS) has been in space for so long and is already approaching retirement.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. This is a collaborative project between NASA, Rocosmos, JAXA, ESA and CSA. The ISS took off on November 20, 1998 or 23 years ago.
A view of NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger docked to the ISS, with a view of Earth behind it.
The ISS regularly gets supplies of food and other materials from Earth for the astronauts stationed there. As of December 2021, 251 astronauts, cosmonauts and tourists from 19 different countries have visited the ISS.
The ISS is intended for research purposes in outer space. This space station is not the first to fly but the ninth.
Astronauts live on the ISS in zero gravity. The first crew to stay there arrived on November 2, 2000.
This is how astronauts sleep while floating inside the ISS.
Various research instruments and computers operated by the crew on duty. The crew on the ISS always changes after the schedule is over.
The ISS orbits the Earth in approximately 93 minutes, so every day it circles 15.5 times.
Astronauts occasionally perform spacewalks to repair components outside or carry out other missions.
There have been so many spectacular photos produced from the ISS.
The sights that astronauts can see are absolutely breathtaking.
The moon on Earth's horizon looks amazing.
The Earth's surface was taken for research.
The ISS is getting old and was originally due to be retired in 2024, but has been extended until the end of 2030. After that, the ISS will enter retirement and will be sunk by NASA at Point Nemo, a remote point in the Pacific Ocean.
In the ISS Transition Plan document submitted to the US Congress, NASA outlines the process for bringing the ISS back to Earth. First, mission control will run the thrusters to slowly lower the altitude of the ISS.
After approaching Earth's atmosphere around January 2031, the ISS will perform its final maneuver to ensure that its remains fall into the South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area (SPOUA), also known as Point Nemo.
The Point Nemo area is often chosen to drop space junk from orbit because it is the farthest point from land. Since 1971, countries such as the US, Russia, and Japan have dumped more than 263 space debris at the site.
"NASA and its partners have evaluated various numbers of Russia's Progress spacecraft," NASA wrote in the report. They can also use Northrop Grumman's Cyrus spacecraft to aid in the process.