Historic structures like Alexander Graham Bell’s residence in Nova Scotia typically transform into museums or national historic sites to safeguard their legacy for future generations. But what about preserving a colossal structure equivalent to a football field, orbiting 400 kilometers above Earth?

NASA’s official strategy entails deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of its operational lifespan. This involves intentionally guiding the station on a controlled descent back into Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a splashdown in a remote ocean location.

However, recent legislative developments within the U.S. Government urge NASA to explore alternative options, such as investigating the feasibility of maintaining the ISS in low Earth orbit. Since its inception in 2000, the ISS has accommodated numerous astronauts from the U.S., Russia, Canada, Europe, and Japan, assembled through multiple space missions.

With a mass exceeding 400 metric tonnes, the ISS stands as the largest scientific laboratory ever sent into space, facilitating a myriad of experiments unique to a microgravity environment. Despite its remarkable contributions, NASA announced plans to decommission the space station by 2030, followed by a deliberate deorbit in 2031.

While SpaceX is slated to execute the controlled reentry of the ISS, some officials advocate for exploring alternatives before committing to its destruction. The complexity of preserving the ISS poses significant challenges, as neglecting regular maintenance could lead to its uncontrolled descent within a few years.

Proposals to boost the ISS to a higher orbit face limitations due to fuel requirements and structural concerns, with NASA highlighting the risks of collision with space debris. Efforts to seek private entities interested in taking over the ISS have yielded no viable options, accentuating the challenges of sustaining the aging space station.

Despite NASA’s shifting focus towards lunar and Mars exploration, the prospect of orbiting space stations remains viable, with initiatives like China’s Tiangong station already in operation. As discussions on the ISS’s fate continue, the likelihood of its eventual reentry and destruction looms, unless innovative solutions emerge to preserve this iconic space laboratory.