How Do You Crash the ISS Without Hitting Anyone?

In a few years NASA plans to crash the International Space Station on purpose, into the emptiest patch of ocean on Earth. To do it, they have to slow 420 tonnes down by less than one percent, at exactly the right moment. Why it has to end, why letting it fall would be a lottery (Skylab showed us in 1979), every other option NASA looked at and why it said no, how Russia brought down Mir, the five steps of the plan, and Point Nemo, where the astronauts overhead can be the nearest people. Chapters 0:00 The plan to crash the ISS 0:56 What we're throwing away 2:05 Why it has to end 3:26 Why not let it fall? 4:24 Skylab: when it went wrong 5:59 The one-in-ten-thousand rule 7:13 The options NASA rejected 9:08 Mir: the closest anyone has come 10:13 How the plan works 12:16 Point Nemo 13:28 Is 2030 really the end? 14:13 How to crash a space station Sources NASA: ISS deorbit analysis summary (2024): https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploa... NASA: ISS transition report (2022): https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/fi... GAO: International Space Station (GAO-26-107805): https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-107... NASA Office of Inspector General: ISS risks (IG-24-020): https://oig.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploa... NASA: Space station facts and figures: https://www.nasa.gov/international-sp... NASA: Update on the space station leak (June 2026): https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestati... NASA: The US Deorbit Vehicle contract: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nas... NASA History: 45 years ago, Skylab reenters: https://www.nasa.gov/history/45-years... NASA History: 20 years ago, Mir reenters: https://www.nasa.gov/history/20-years... NASA: Analysis of the recovered space object (Naples, 2024): https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestati... NASA Orbital Debris Program Office: Reentry: https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/re... US Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices (2019): https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/li... NOAA: Point Nemo: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/n... US National Archives: the demise of Skylab: https://text-message.blogs.archives.g... Guinness World Records: first fine for littering from space: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/... Here & Now (WBUR): the spacecraft graveyard (2017): https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/... SpacePolicyOnline: Russia and the ISS to 2030 (July 2026): https://spacepolicyonline.com/?p=89970 Credits Space images: NASA (GSFC, HQ, JSC), public domain Maps: Natural Earth (public domain) #ISS #NASA #Space