The Unreported Abnormalities of the ISS and a Surge in Serious Incidents

The total mass of the ISS is 450 tons. It is quite huge, about the same size as a soccer court (108.5m wide). At present, it is scheduled to be dropped into the Pacific Ocean in ’31, but anxiety has not been dispelled at all.

Most of the ISS will burn up in the atmosphere, but some of its hard parts such as iron and titanium (so-called “space debris”) will not burn up and fall to the surface. For this reason, the ISS is planned to be dropped into “Point Nemo” (Latin for “uninhabited”), an area of the South Pacific Ocean that is the farthest from any land.

All of the components that fell into the habitable zone were separated from the orbit similar to that of the ISS.

The ISS travels at an altitude of 410 km from the surface of the Earth at an orbit of about 7.7 km per second. Dropping the ISS into the restricted waters of Point Nemo requires extremely sophisticated control technology: over a period of three years, the orbital altitude is gradually lowered and the accuracy of the drop is improved, but if the timing of the drop is off even slightly, metal parts could fall on the habitation site.

Everyone thinks that with NASA’s technology, the possibility of debris falling to the habitat should be low, but accidents in which debris falls to the ground have occurred frequently even in recent years. In other words, it continues to be possible for debris to fall anywhere.

In March ’24, a 2.6-ton used battery pack dumped into orbit from the ISS failed to burn up in the atmosphere, and part of it crashed through the roof of a house in Florida. No casualties were reported, but NASA is responding to claims for compensation at this time.

Also in ’22, on a farm in Australia, and in May ’24, on a farm in Canada. The following month, parts of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft also fell in the mountains of North Carolina, USA. All of them were separated from the airframe that was going to and from the ISS, i.e., the airframe that was traveling on an orbit (inclination angle) similar to that of the ISS.

It will be six and a half years until the moment when the ISS is brought down to Earth, but until then, the ISS will remain above our heads as a “crisis in the present.