Why and how NASA will crash the $150 billion space station into the Pacific

After nearly three decades of circling the Earth and hosting astronauts from around the world, the

International Space Station

(

ISS

) is set to retire in 2031 — with

NASA

planning to crash it (a controlled deorbit) into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as

Point Nemo

.
The ISS’s decommissioning will mark the end of a historic era in space collaboration and signal a shift where not countries and governments, but private players will build and place in orbit the space station’s replacement.