Russia plans to de-orbit the International Space Station (ISS) and sink it in the Pacific Ocean after 2020, the space agency said Wednesday.
Vitaly Davydov, the deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said that the ISS -- like its Russian predecessor Mir -- will be sunk in order to prevent space junk.
"We will be forced to sink the ISS," Davydov said in an interview posted on the Roscosmos website. "We cannot leave it in orbit as it is a very complicated and a heavy object. There must be no space waste from it."
This is a national disgrace. The US manned space program is effectively dead. Yet, the Russians, Chinese, and Indians plan on building their own space stations, in addition to going back to the moon. To read the rest of the article, click here.