International Space Station to Be Laid to Rest on Sea Floor

Russia says it will avoid littering in space by littering in the ocean.

Russia's space agency said today that they will sink the International Space Station to the bottom of the ocean in 2020, joining its predecessor, the Mir space station, on the sea floor. Roskosmos said doing so would clear Earth's orbit of a giant piece of space garbage as more and more satellites begin to litter inner space. The Russians, who declared that the “era of the Soyuz" had begun earlier this month when NASA shut down its shuttle program, don't have any plans to replace the station, which is comprised of parts made in Canada, the U.S., Japan, Russia, and elsewhere. We're sure the logistics of this would be next to impossible, but can you imagine how cool it would be if Roskosmos was able to safely bring down the ISS to the ground and then turn it into a museum? Either way, its kind of a humbling fate for the ISS, which went into orbit in 1998. Maybe NASA can the aptly named Atlantis shuttle down there, too.