Ocean group warns of environmental risks in NASA's plan to deorbit ISS
The Ocean Foundation says NASA's intended controlled re-entry of the International Space Station into the Pacific raises unanswered questions about marine pollution and legal accountability.
NASA intends to retire the International Space Station by attaching a SpaceX-provided deorbit vehicle in mid-2029 and guiding the combined craft to a remote area of the Pacific known as Point Nemo, where debris is expected to fall into the ocean. The plan, outlined in a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report, aims to minimise risk to populated regions by using the high seas as a target for re-entry.
Mark Spalding, president of the Ocean Foundation, said the proposal "raises serious concerns for ocean health that the space community has not adequately grappled with." He warned that international law provides compensation for space debris that lands on a nation's territory, but no comparable liability exists for damage to the ocean, leaving agencies free to direct debris to international waters without cleanup obligations.
Spalding noted that while the remote location reduces human safety risks, the ocean’s ecological value remains significant. He said the agency has not fully disclosed which ISS components are likely to survive re-entry and reach the seafloor, adding that the uncertainty itself is problematic. He also cited the newly negotiated High Seas Treaty, which obliges parties to conduct environmental impact assessments for activities with unknown marine effects, and asked whether the ISS deorbit should trigger such a review.
The Ocean Foundation calls for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, public disclosure of surviving materials, and a legal analysis of obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 1996 London Protocol, and the High Seas Treaty before proceeding with the deorbit operation.
