NASA is spending $1 billion on a strategy to safely crash the leaking International Space Station (ISS) into the Pacific Ocean by 2031, before it triggers a catastrophic uncontrolled fall. The plan comes after a worsening gas leak forced NASA crew members to brace for an emergency evacuation, while Russian cosmonauts scrambled to patch the hole.
Time Running Out for the ISS
Time is officially ticking down for the International Space Station after a quarter of a century in orbit. Fears for the iconic outpost reached boiling point just days ago when the gas leak intensified. Although astronauts managed to avoid a midnight return to Earth, the near-miss has sparked concerns that the aging ISS is well past its sell-by date.
Space experts have now unveiled a step-by-step blueprint to obliterate the doomed $100 billion mega-structure and send it plunging into a watery grave.
The Deorbit Plan
Speaking at the ASCEND 2026 aerospace conference, Ryan Landon, director of Operations at NASA Johnson Space Centre, revealed that the giant laboratory will begin its death spiral as early as 2028. Weighing in at 450,000 kg — the equivalent of 280 family cars — the ISS stays in orbit by circling Earth 16 times a day at 17,500 mph. Without constant thruster boosts, it would plunge into the atmosphere naturally. However, letting the massive base fall on its own would trigger an uncontrolled re-entry, raining lethal shards of hot metal on civilian populations.
Dr. James Beck, space debris expert and director of UK-based Belstead Research, told the Daily Mail: "It is certain that parts will reach the surface of the Earth, and most likely quite a lot of parts. The open question is how many, and whether there can be sufficient control over where this occurs."
Any space re-entry carries an internationally agreed casualty risk limit of one in 10,000, usually triggered by smaller satellites. The ISS is an entirely different beast. Dr. Beck added: "It should be expected that a few hundred objects which could cause casualties on the ground would be produced."
Target: Point Nemo
To prevent a global catastrophe, NASA cannot stop the debris from forming, so they must control exactly where it lands. The designated target is Point Nemo in the Pacific Ocean, a remote location known as the "Spaceship Graveyard" because it is the furthest point from human life on Earth. Slowing the space station enough to hit this target will require nine tonnes of fuel, a feat far beyond the capability of the station's existing thrusters.
SpaceX's Role
NASA has handed SpaceX a contract worth just under $1 billion (£749.69 million) to build a powerful cosmic "tugboat." Elon Musk's team will modify a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, packing it with six times the fuel and four times the power of a standard vehicle to act as the ultimate executioner. The final cargo ships will flee the station in 2029 before all operations officially shut down in 2030. Once the last crew says goodbye, the ghost ship will sink to 175 miles above Earth.
Dana Weigel, NASA's ISS manager, previously explained that the SpaceX tug will deliver the final blow over several stages. She said: "At the right time, it will perform a complex series of actions over several days to deorbit the space station. First, the deorbit vehicle will perform orbit shaping burns to put the station in a low elliptical orbit, and then, eventually, it will perform a final re-entry burn."
Even if the plan goes perfectly, up to 100 tonnes of scorched metal will survive the burn. Experts also fear the tug could lose control and begin a fatal tumble once it hits thick air 150 miles up. This mirrors the 1979 disaster when NASA's Skylab broke apart prematurely, raining wreckage over Western Australia. Yet, space bosses insist doing nothing is not an option.
NASA's official assessment concluded: "The International Space Station requires a controlled re-entry because it is very large, and uncontrolled re-entry would result in very large pieces of debris with a large debris footprint, posing a significant risk to the public worldwide. Ensuring the space station is well maintained continues to be the safest operational approach while also planning for deorbit at the space station's end of life."
