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International Space Station slated for destruction in 2024, but could it become a tourist destination instead?

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The International Space Station has long been an orbiting demonstration of what human beings are capable of when they toss national differences aside and focus on a common goal. Even amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia, the space station’s primary financiers, orbital operations have remained friendly and cooperative – but budgetary constraints in both nations may soon mean the end of the historic platform.
Currently, the International Space Station is slated for destruction sometime in 2024, when it will be manually de-orbited on a trajectory that would see it coming apart somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

“Year by year, Russia is launching the fuel to fill up the tanks of the ISS service module to enable the space station to be deorbited,” veteran NASA astronaut Michael Foale told the BBC recently. “That’s the current plan–I think it’s a bad plan, a massive waste of a fantastic resource.”

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Comments

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  • James Walper

    This reminds me of when they wanted to crash the Iridium satellite network into orbit. Instead, someone else bought it up, and made it work for hundreds of businesses. So, this leads me to ask; Why destroy it? It costs a fortune to get things into space. Once it's there, why not try to send it to orbit Mars... so what if it takes a long time to get there and you send it by a laser pulse, small rocket, or air jettison. I guess this is big government thinking. If they were smart, they would put it up for sale. Try to regain some of their costs if they can't figure out how to use it anymore.

  • Paul Y

    Sounds like a job for Elon Musk? He certainly has the vision and resources to put a consortium together - nothing seems to be too big or too "far out there" for that guy.