NASA May Pay $1 Billion to Destroy the International Space Station. Here's Why

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November 30, 2023

Whether we're talking about a memorable year, a great Thanksgiving dinner, or a historic human outpost in low-Earth orbit, the same sentiment holds: all good things must come to an end. That's the theme of this week's top story, which details NASA's complicated plans for deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS)—and explains why the aging habitat can't simply be preserved as a museum-style artifact in space. Once you've come to terms with the ISS's inevitable fiery demise, consider sampling from our cornucopia of other essential articles, which include pieces on China's ambitious Xuntian space telescope, a mysterious ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray from "nowhere," the deep connections between mathematical graph theory and Vanuatu's traditional sand drawings, and much, much more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Space Exploration NASA May Pay $1 Billion to Destroy the International Space Station. Here's Why The International Space Station—larger than a football field and weighing almost 450 tons—must eventually fall to Earth. It's a delicate, dangerous process By Meghan Bartels

Astrophysics The Second Most Powerful Cosmic Ray in History Came from--Nowhere? Amaterasu—the most powerful cosmic ray seen in three decades—seems to come from an empty point of the sky. New telescopes may solve the mystery of its origins By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Astronomy China Delays Launch of Its Xuntian Space Telescope The Xuntian Space Telescope is China's entry in a global race to unlock the secrets of dark energy, and it will now lift off no earlier than mid-2025 By Ling Xin

Mathematics An Ancient Art Form Topples Assumptions about Mathematics The sand drawings of Vanuatu follow principles from a branch of mathematics known as graph theory By Alban Da Silva

Climate Change New Space Station Sensor Can Reveal Hidden Greenhouse Gas Polluters An instrument mounted to the International Space Station was built to map dust in the atmosphere, but it's also giving scientists a wealth of information about methane and carbon dioxide emissions By Meghan Bartels

Astronomy Leonid and Geminid Meteor Showers Bring Bonanza before Year's End Two unusual annual meteor showers come at the end of the year, and each can spark astonishing celestial fireworks By Phil Plait

Planetary Science New Map Reveals Secrets of Io, the Solar System's Most Volcanic Moon The best-yet map of active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io hints at a hidden magma ocean—and more By Robin George Andrews

Astronomy How to Buy Your First Telescope This beginner's guide to telescope basics will help make holiday shopping a little more heavenly By Phil Plait

Astrophysics 'Heartbreak' Stars Cause Enormous, Tumultuous Waves in Their Partners Two orbiting stars are causing unsustainably large tides as they draw closer together By Allison Gasparini

Astronomy Sun Unleashes 'Canyon of Fire' Filament of Plasma A solar outburst shoots charged particles into space—and toward Earth By Meghan Bartels

Planetary Science Six-Planet System in Perfect Harmony Shocks Scientists Six "sub-Neptune" worlds locked in a delicate dance around a nearby star offer fresh insights for the orbital evolution of planetary systems By Sharmila Kuthunur,SPACE.com

Astrophysics Mysterious 'Tasmanian Devil' Space Explosion Baffles Astronomers Scientists still can't explain what is causing unusually bright explosions in space—but a surprising observation might offer clues By Jonathan O'Callaghan,Nature magazine

Materials Science Superconductor Research Is in a 'Golden Age,' Despite Controversy The search for room-temperature superconductors has suffered scandalous setbacks, but physicists are optimistic about the field's future By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Space Exploration SpaceX Starship's Second Flight Was an Explosive Milestone SpaceX's Starship—the most powerful rocket ever built—experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" in its otherwise successful second full-scale launch, triggering a federal investigation into what went wrong By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Defense Just One U.S. Reservation Hosts Nuclear Weapons. This Is The Story of How That Came to Be 15 nuclear missiles deployed in underground concrete silos across the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. It took displacement and flood to get them there. By Ella Weber | 17:24

QUOTE OF THE DAY "You don't want to leave it in orbit. It's very nice to think of it as a museum, but it's going to deteriorate and break up." Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, on NASA's end-of-life plans for the International Space Station

FROM THE ARCHIVE NASA Will Map Every Living Thing on the International Space Station Surveying the billions of tiny microbial astronauts that dwell within the orbital laboratory could help us prepare for human voyages to Mars By Shannon Hall | March 2021

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