International Space Station

MOSCOW, Russia -- A top Russian space official says his agency plans to sink the mammoth International Space Station in 2020.

Deputy head of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos Vitaly Davydov said Wednesday that the

station "cannot be left in orbit" after it stops operation.

He said in a web-posted statement that the station will have to be de-orbited in a "planned crash so that there is no space junk left behind."

The colossal station is the biggest orbiting outpost ever built and can sometimes be seen from the Earth with the naked eye. It now consists of more than a dozen modules built by the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.

Russia sank its Mir space station in the Pacific in 1998 after five years in operation.

 

It's a plan that's long been in the works and is a step to avoid the station becoming dangerous space junk. It was supposed to plunge into the ocean as early as 2015. The U.S. recently extended its life until at least 2020, and there's been talk of keeping it going even longer.

Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency, said the orbiting outpost will be destroyed in a controlled descent to Earth "so that there is no space junk left behind."

Russia sank its Mir space station in the Pacific in 2001 after 15 years in operation. Skylab, America's first space station, fell from orbit in 1979 after six years in space.

The International Space Station is the biggest orbiting outpost ever built and can sometimes be seen from the Earth with the naked eye. It's now big enough for six residents.