What is Point Nemo? Earth's most isolated place where ISS will be crashed
Authored By Subhadra Srivastava
Published: May 29, 2025, 16:20 IST | Updated: Jun 05, 2025, 11:37 IST
This point lies in the South Pacific Ocean, which is approximately 2,700 kilometres from the nearest land.
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(Photograph:Grok AI)
What is Point Nemo?
Point Nemo, officially known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, is the most remote location on Earth. This point lies in the South Pacific Ocean, which is approximately 2,700 kilometres from the nearest land. The closest landmasses to nemo include Easter Island to the north and Maher Island off Antarctica to the south.
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(Photograph:Indian Navy/ X)
Discovery and Location
Point Nemo, discovered in 1992 by engineer Hrvoje Lukatela, sits around 3,000 miles from New Zealand and 2,000 miles north of Antarctica. The area is surrounded by over nine million square miles of open ocean and lies in waters which are over 4,000 metres deep.
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(Photograph:Wikimedia Commons)
The Spacecraft Graveyard
Since the 1970s, more than 260 decommissioned spacecraft have been directed into the waters near Point Nemo. These spacecrafts include Russia’s Mir space station and NASA’s Skylab. The site was chosen to reduce the risk of debris landing in the populated areas.
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(Photograph:Wikimedia Commons)
ISS to Join in 2031
NASA has already confirmed plans to de-orbit the International Space Station (ISS) in January 2031. At 109 metres long and weighing over 419,000 kilograms, it will be the largest object ever to be deposited at Point Nemo. According to International Space Station Transition Report of 2022, parts of the ISS will burn during re-entry, but a controlled descent will guide the remainder to the site, to 'lower ISS as much as possible and ensure safe atmospheric entry'.
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(Photograph:Indian Navy/ X)
Why Point Nemo?
Point Nemo’s remoteness, the weak ocean currents, paired up with the lack of marine biodiversity makes it ideal for disposing of large spacecraft. The area has very limited ecological activity, which reduces the environmental impact of such crashes. It is estimated that there are currently around 40,000 pieces of human-made debris in Earth’s orbit. If not properly managed, these could collide, causing further fragmentation. Therefore, controlled deorbiting into areas like Point Nemo helps to mitigate risks like these.
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(Photograph:Wikimedia Commons)
Agreements and Protocols
In 1993, several space agencies globally agreed to dispose of space debris either in graveyard orbits or uninhabited ocean regions. Point Nemo has since become the preferred option due to its isolation and size. No humans reside near Point Nemo. It is so remote that the closest people are often astronauts aboard the International Space Station, orbiting 400 kilometres above Earth.
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