The International Space Station (ISS), one of humanity's greatest achievements in collaborative space exploration, is nearing the end of its operational life. After decades of continuous human presence in low Earth orbit, the massive orbiting laboratory is scheduled for a controlled deorbit in late 2030 or early 2031. Its targeted final destination is one of the most remote places on our planet: Point Nemo, also known as the "spacecraft cemetery."
What is Point Nemo?
Point Nemo is not a piece of land but a set of geographical coordinates marking the oceanic pole of inaccessibility—the location in the ocean farthest from any landmass.
Name Origin: It is named after Captain Nemo, the secluded submarine captain from Jules Verne’s novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In Latin, Nemo literally means "no one."
Coordinates: The point is located in the South Pacific Ocean at approximately 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W.
Extreme Remoteness: Point Nemo is about 2,688 kilometers (1,670 miles) away from the nearest land. The three closest landmasses are:
Ducie Island (part of the Pitcairn Islands) to the north.
Motu Nui (an islet near Easter Island) to the northeast.
Maher Island (off the coast of Antarctica) to the south.
Closer to Space: Due to its immense distance from civilization, the closest human beings to Point Nemo are often the astronauts aboard the International Space Station as it passes overhead, orbiting at an altitude of about 400 km.
The "Spacecraft Cemetery"
The extreme isolation of Point Nemo makes it the ideal location for the controlled re-entry and disposal of large spacecraft. For decades, global space agencies have targeted this region to ensure that surviving debris from re-entering vehicles falls harmlessly into an uninhabited area.
Hundreds of Disposals: Several hundred defunct satellites and spacecraft, including the Russian Mir space station in 2001, have been intentionally sent to crash and sink in this area. This has earned the region the nickname, the "spacecraft cemetery" or the South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area (SPOUA).
Minimizing Risk: The controlled descent to this remote point minimizes the risk of debris striking populated areas, buildings, or essential infrastructure on Earth.
The ISS Deorbit Plan
The International Space Station, which is roughly the size of a football field and weighs approximately 460 tons, represents the most massive human-made structure ever planned for controlled re-entry.
Need for Controlled Descent: Due to its immense size and mass, an uncontrolled re-entry would spread debris over a massive and unpredictable footprint, posing an unacceptable risk. The failure to precisely control the re-entry of the US Skylab space station in 1979, which dropped charred pieces onto Western Australia, serves as a historical caution.
Decommissioning Timeline: The ISS is scheduled to operate through 2030, allowing time for a transition to new commercial space stations being developed by private companies (e.g., Axiom Space, Blue Origin's Orbital Reef).
The Final Push: NASA plans to procure a specialized vehicle, referred to as the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), possibly a modified version of SpaceX's Dragon capsule. This vehicle will dock with the ISS after the final crew has departed.
The Maneuver: The USDV will perform a controlled, high-force deorbit burn to provide the precise push needed to guide the massive station's descent. This ensures the station's trajectory aims the debris footprint directly over Point Nemo.
Re-entry and Breakup: As the ISS plunges into the atmosphere, intense heating will cause most of the hardware to burn up or vaporize. However, dense or heat-resistant components, like some truss segments, are expected to survive re-entry and splash down in the targeted ocean area.
The controlled deorbiting of the ISS into Point Nemo will mark the end of a pivotal chapter in space history, paving the way for the next era of commercialized low-Earth orbit exploration.