The spacecraft cemetery, known more formally as the South Pacific Ocean(ic) Uninhabited Area,
is a region in the southern
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
east of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, where
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
that have reached the end of their usefulness are routinely crashed. The area is roughly centered on "Point Nemo", the
oceanic pole of inaccessibility
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
, the location farthest from any land.
[
The defunct space station '']Mir
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
'' and six Salyut
The ''Salyut'' programme (russian: Салют, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed ...
stations[ are among those that have been ditched there. Other spacecraft that have been routinely ]scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
in the region include various cargo spacecraft
Cargo spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed to carry cargo, possibly to support space stations' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. This is different from a space probe, whose missions are to conduct sci ...
to the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
, including Russian ''Progress
Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...
'' cargo craft, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency H-II Transfer Vehicle, and the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle
The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit fiv ...
. A total of more than 263 spacecraft were disposed in this area between 1971 and 2016. The International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
is slated to end up in the spacecraft cemetery upon "retirement".
Current considerations of the spacecraft cemetery include the environmental impact it creates on marine life within the South Pacific Ocean
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
Uninhabited Region. This region is beyond legal jurisdiction of any country, hence faces less regulation. Currently two treaties outline certain laws that can be applied to the spacecraft cemetery. The Outer Space Treaty
russian: link=yes, Договор о космосе es, link=yes, Tratado sobre el espacio ultraterrestre
, long_name = Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moo ...
produced by the United Nations reflects on damages caused by spacecraft on opposing nations. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...
reflects on general marine pollution. Marine pollution can be caused by spillage of the highly toxic rocket propellant hydrazine. Other forms of space debris removal are being considered and produced to slow the exponential growth of space debris orbiting Earth due to increased space exploration.
Purpose
Earth's spacecraft cemetery is used as a site for spacecraft that have reached their lifetime limit due to fatigue and must be retired. Larger spacecraft too massive to burn up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere are controlled to crash / splash down in Earth's spacecraft cemetery, a location in the ocean remote from inhabited regions. The use of this remote location enhances protection of inhabited regions from harm during re-entry and impact. The spacecraft cemetery region contains between 250 and 300 various spacecraft, and has been used by multiple international space exploration organizations, including crafts from China, Russia, and other countries. Currently, the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
is slated to enter the spacecraft cemetery at the end of its lifespan.
Location
The spacecraft cemetery is located inside the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area, a region in the southern Pacific Ocean to the east of the geographic center of the water hemisphere (, near New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
's Bounty Islands). The area, roughly centered on "Point Nemo
A pole of inaccessibility with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a ...
", the oceanic pole of inaccessibility, is furthest away from any land. The nearest islands are over away from the center. This location has been chosen for its remoteness and limited shipping traffic so as not to endanger human life with any falling debris.
Incidents
A total of more than 263 spacecraft were disposed in this area between 1971 and 2016. The defunct space station Mir
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
and six Salyut
The ''Salyut'' programme (russian: Салют, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed ...
stations are among the nearly 200 pieces of Russian spacecraft debris in this region, making Russia the largest contributor of spacecraft in the cemetery. The remaining pieces of debris in the cemetery belong to the United States, Europe, Japan, as well as certain private organizations. Among American spacecraft, remnants of the Skylab space station were deposited into the spacecraft cemetery.
The decommissioning of Tiangong-1
Tiangong-1 () was China's first prototype space station. It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018, serving as both a crewed laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities during its ...
, the first Chinese space station, was an unsuccessful targeted re-entry at Point Nemo. During an extended mission phase, control was lost due to a power failure, leading to an uncontrolled landing outside of the spacecraft cemetery.
According to the U.S. guidelines dictating which spacecraft pose enough risk to require a controlled landing, it is recommended that the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
undergo a controlled de-orbit at the end of its life. The same is recommended for the Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
.
Laws
Disposal of end of life spacecraft into the spacecraft cemetery is not strictly controlled despite frequent disposals into the zone and potential risks of re-entry. Since the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area is beyond the jurisdiction of any country, very few laws restrict the activity of nations within this area. International treaties exist but do not clearly assign responsibility to countries about the liability for damages and pollution caused by re-entering space debris.
Among the pertinent regulations, two general agreements concerning space debris and marine pollution are often expanded upon to govern the spacecraft cemetery.
First, the Outer Space Treaty proposed by the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
dictates that each state party is subject to the damages to other state parties caused by part of the registered spacecraft on the Earth, which include the ocean. Therefore, countries are obliged to take action when disposal of registered spacecraft into the ocean causes damages to other parties. However, space debris in the ocean is often left unclaimed.
In the perspective of ocean preservation, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also known as Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC), commands that all states have the duty of protecting and preventing marine environment from pollution, even outside the jurisdiction of any state. Nevertheless, this article is only practical when space debris is considered harmful to the marine environment.
Environmental impacts
With 47% of re-entry mass coming from controlled re-entries, chemical spillage poses a risk to the marine environment. Hydrazine, a widely used rocket propellant that is highly toxic to living organisms, likely partially survives during re-entry. Radioactive chemicals present in spacecraft are also a cause for concern in the industry.
There are numerous domestic and international regulatory bodies intended to mitigate potential environmental damage caused by spacecraft pollution. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...
is an international treaty overseeing marine pollution and its contributors. This agreement defines pollution using three conditions: 1) the object must have been introduced into the environment by man, 2) the object contains substances, 3) the object must be detrimental to living organisms. Because it is difficult to know how much of a substance remains after it enters the atmosphere, the potential environmental risk of certain spacecraft entering the cemetery may be unknown, leaving much of the treaty up for interpretation. Additionally, the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
provides protocols on marine pollution declaring the responsibility for pollution mitigation to those who contribute to it and addresses regional cooperation between nations in order to find the least harmful solutions to debris disposal.
Space debris disposal
Space debris is any form of man-made object orbiting the Earth that no longer serves a useful function. Currently more than 27,000 pieces of space debris are orbiting earth at high velocities, threatening the safety of human and robotic missions, as well as causing damage to spacecraft. There are few space debris removal processes, one of which is depositing large spacecraft in the spacecraft cemetery on earth, although, due to exhausted maneuvering fuel reserves, in the past this was rarely done.
The most common way to eliminate space debris, when actually done, is to de-orbit crafts, causing them to burn up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere due to high velocities and air compression resulting in a temperature increase of air and the craft's surface. Other common and less controlled processes for space removal include allowing the crafts to decay, collide with other objects, or causing them to explode, resulting in smaller pieces of space debris. Currently, new processes for space debris removal are being developed to reduce the exponential growth of space debris orbiting earth, such as nets, magnetized collecting arms, and more.
See also
* Aircraft boneyard
* Atmospheric reentry
* Graveyard orbit
A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellites are moved into ...
* Ship graveyard
A ship graveyard or ship cemetery is a location where the hulls of scrapped ships are left to decay and disintegrate, or left in reserve. Such a practice is now less common due to waste regulations and so some dry docks where ships are brok ...
* Space debris
* Wrecking yard
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish, British and New Zealand English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are bro ...
* Space sustainability
Space sustainability aims to maintain the safety and health of the space environment.
Similar to sustainability initiatives on Earth, space sustainability seeks to use the environment of space to meet the current needs of society without compr ...
References
{{Vehicle graveyard
Pacific Ocean
Space debris
Spacecraft endings
Vehicle graveyards