Futurism – The Byte
By Frank Landymore
October 28, 2023
The International Space Station will soon need to be retired, having long outlasted its intended lifespan of 15 years — and NASA is getting deadly serious about taking it down.
At a briefing on Thursday, the space agency’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) called plans to build a specialized “space tug” to deorbit the station “not optional,” fearing human casualties on the ground should it make an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere.