NASA says that once it decommissions the International Space Station in 2030, it plans to return the module to the Earth by crashing it into the Pacific Ocean.

In a press release on Monday, the agency said that while the Biden Administration has extended the ISS's space station operations through 2030, the agency has been planning to transition the use of space stations to commercial businesses.

According to the agency, allowing private companies to handle space station operations will "develop both the supply and demand side of the low-Earth orbit commercial economy and the technical steps and budget required for transition."

"The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA's assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space," Phil McAlister, NASA Headquarters director of commercial space, said in a statement. "The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030."

Once NASA officially retires the International Space Station, the agency plans to bring the module down from Low-Earth Orbit in 2031.

According to a report released last month, NASA will gradually direct the station into a series of maneuvers that will lower its altitude. At a certain point, NASA will direct the ISS into re-entry burn over the Pacific Ocean, where it will crash into the water.

NASA says it will aim for the spacecraft to land in the South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area — a remote oceanic region southeast of New Zealand, where scientists often direct spacecraft to land, as it's far away from human-inhabited landmasses.

But just because NASA is planning for the end of the ISS era doesn't mean the space station won't be busy in the years to come.

"The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity," said Robyn Gatens, NASA's director of the International Space Station. "This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit. We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins is set to become the first Black woman to join the International Space Station crew on a long-duration mission.

The U.S. space agency announced this week that the 33-year-old will serve as a mission specialist on the upcoming SpaceX Crew-4 mission, the fourth crew rotation flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station.

It will be Watkins’ first trip to space following her selection as an astronaut in 2017.

Before becoming an astronaut, Watkins began her career at NASA as an intern and has worked at the agency’s Ames Research Center in California and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

She has earned a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

On the space station, Watkins will be joined by NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Crew-4 is scheduled to launch in April of 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a six-month science mission aboard the microgravity laboratory.

KENT, Wash. — Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced Monday they plan to develop a commercial space station in low Earth orbit.

The space station will be called Orbital Reef and the companies say it will start operating in the second half of this decade.

The companies say Orbital Reef will be designed to open new markets in space by providing anyone with the opportunity to establish their own address in orbit.

Blue Origin and Sierra Space promise that the space station will offer research, industrial, international, and commercial customers services they need, including space transportation and logistics, space habitation, equipment accommodation, and operations, like on-board crew.

“For over 60 years, NASA and other space agencies have developed orbital space flight and space habitation, setting us up for commercial business to take off in this decade,” said Brent Sherwood, Senior Vice President of Advanced Development Programs for Blue Origin in a statement. “We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalize space flight. A vibrant business ecosystem will grow in low Earth orbit, generating new discoveries, new products, new entertainments, and global awareness.”

The International Space Station (ISS) already exists in low Earth orbit, but officials say the purpose of the Orbital Reef is different. The companies describe the Orbital Reef as a “mixed-use business park” in space.

“This is exciting for us because this project does not duplicate the immensely successful and enduring ISS, but rather goes a step further to fulfill a unique position in low Earth orbit where it can serve a diverse array of companies and host non-specialist crews,” said John Mulholland, Boeing VP and program manager for the International Space Station. “It calls for the same kind of expertise we used to first design and then build the International Space Station and the same skills we employ every day to operate, maintain and sustain the ISS.”

Blue Origin is owned by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The company says it’s working to make it possible for millions of people to live and work in space to benefit Earth. They want to increase access to space through reusable rockets.

Blue Origin is also in the space tourism market. Its latest launch had “Star Trek” actor William Shatner on board.

A small piece of debris floating in Earth's orbit has damaged a portion of the International Space Station, according to a press release from the Canadian Space Agency.

According to the May 28 press release, officials noticed the damage to a robotic arm attached to the space station earlier this month.

The press release notes that officials discovered that a hole, about 5 mm wide, had been punctured a boom segment of Canadarm2.

While NASA and other space agencies around the world are tracking more than 23,000 objects that can be as small as a softball, the Canadian Space Agency noted that some space debris is too tiny to track.

Officials suspect that it was one of those little pieces of debris — whether a pebble or a fleck of paint from a nearby satellite — that punctured the robotic arm.

Luckily, the robotic arm is still operational and "unaffected" by the damage. The Canadian Space Agency indicated that Canadarm2 is still conducting planned operations.

"Space can be a harsh and unforgiving environment for the robots and humans that explore it," the agency said in a press release.

The wine is out of this world. The price is appropriately stratospheric.

Christie’s said Tuesday it is selling a bottle of French wine that spent more than a year in orbit aboard the International Space Station. The auction house thinks a wine connoisseur might pay as much as $1 million to own it.

The Pétrus 2000 is one of 12 bottles sent into space in November 2019 by researchers exploring the potential for extraterrestrial agriculture. It returned 14 months later subtly altered, according to wine experts who sampled it at a tasting in France.

Tim Tiptree, international director of Christie’s wine and spirits department, said the space-aged wine was “matured in a unique environment” of near zero-gravity aboard the space station.

The trip turned a $10,000-a-bottle wine known for its complexity, silky, ripe tannins and flavors of black cherry, cigar box and leather into a scientific novelty — and still a fine bottle of wine, Tiptree said.

“It’s just a very harmonious wine that has the ability to age superbly, which is why it was chosen for this experiment,” he said. “It’s very encouraging that it was delicious on return to Earth.”

Private space startup Space Cargo Unlimited sent the wine into orbit in November 2019 as part of an effort to make plants on Earth more resilient to climate change and disease by exposing them to new stresses. Researchers also want to better understand the aging process, fermentation and bubbles in wine.

At a taste test in March at the Institute for Wine and Vine Research in Bordeaux, France, a dozen wine connoisseurs compared one of the space-traveled wines to a bottle from the same vintage that had stayed in a cellar.

They noted a difference that was hard to describe. Jane Anson, a writer with the wine publication Decanter, said the wine that remained on Earth tasted a bit younger, the space version slightly softer and more aromatic.

The wine, being offered by Christie’s in a private sale, comes with a bottle of terrestrial Pétrus of the same vintage, a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew crafted from a meteorite. It’s all held in a hand-crafted wooden trunk with decoration inspired by science fiction pioneer Jules Verne and the “Star Trek” universe.

Proceeds from the sale will fund future research by Space Cargo Unlimited. Several other bottles from the dozen that went to space remain unopened, but Christie’s says there are no plans to sell any of them.

Tiptree says the price estimate, “in the region of $1 million,” reflects the sale’s likely appeal to a mix of wine connoisseurs, space buffs and the kind of wealthy people who collect “ultimate experiences.”

The lot includes the bottle of 2000 Pétrus that remained on Earth so the buyer can compare the two — should they decide to open the one that went into orbit.

“I would hope that they will decide to drink it, but maybe not immediately,” Tiptree said. “It’s at its peak drinking, but this wine will last probably another at least another two or three decades.”