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.

 

An iPhone 5?

Rumours have been circulating for months about the impending release of Apple’s iPhone 5. Some thought it was to be announced shortly before Christmas 2010, others thought that Steve Jobs and the rest would hold off in order to milk sales of the iPhone 4, and instead announce the new handset in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote as they have done in years previous. However the 10th June came and went without an announcement of the ever-anticipated iPhone 5. So where does that leave the legions of enthusiasts salivating for the newest Apple toy?

Recently an anonymous source from Apple leaked information that the iPhone 5 could be available before the summer is out. This same source has said that the mobile will include an 8 megapixel camera and an imbedded SIM Card, much to the dismay of phone retailers around the UK. According to the report, it will also include a slick ARM Cortex-A9 processor, quite a big upgrade from the current processing chip in the iPhone 4.

Another source has indicated that as of 16th June, the next generation iPhone had entered the final testing phases and was currently being carried around by high level executives within the Apple compound. This bodes well for the September launch date that has generally been agreed upon by most of the iPhone rumour world.

But will this mobile be the iPhone 5 that has the Apple world ablaze? Many indications point to no. Numerous sources and leaked documents indicate that the next mobile to be released might simply be an in-between upgrade as a prelude to the iPhone 5, resembling the move from the iPhone 3 to the iPhone 3GS.

Numerous indications are hinting that the massive game changing upgrades that so many are hoping for might not be seen until Spring 2012. At least one document and one official have pointed to 2012 as the year that Apple will reshape the mobile industry… again. Does that mean that all of the information being leaked now is about that product? Or is there to be an intermediary handset to hold over those who can’t wait that long?

Apple has made no official announcements, outlined any specific timeline, or revealed anything at all about the bag of tricks they will eventually release on the smartphone market.

Keep on drooling, iPhone fans, this one could be a while.