NASA will retire International Space Station in 2031.

Why in news?

• According to NASA, the International Space Station will continue its operation until 2031 and then crash into an uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean ‘South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area (SPOUA)’ known as Point Nemo.
• It will be replaced with three free-flying space stations to continue the work after ISS’s retirement.
• NASA also selected Houston-based Axiom Space to provide the ISS’s first commercial module.

About International Space Station

• In Low Earth Orbit, it is a space station or a habitable artificial satellite (approximately 250 miles above Earth).
• Former US President Ronald Reagan advocated in 1984 the construction of a permanently inhabited spacecraft in cooperation with a few other countries.
• The first piece of the ISS was launched into space on a Russian rocket in 1998.
• NASA and its international partners finished the space station in 2011.
• The International Space Station is one of the most ambitious international collaborations inhuman history.
• Countries involved: The ISS program is a collaboration of five space agencies: NASA (the United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada).
• Intergovernmental treaties and agreements govern the ownership and use of the space station.
• The station is divided into two sections: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), both of which are shared by many nations.