For years, NASA has emphasized budgetary and aging hardware concerns regarding the ISS. Now, during a public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) on April 17, NASA officials said they were “deeply concerned” about the diminishing safety of the orbital station.
The panel cited long-standing issues – cracks and air leaks – as well as funding shortfalls. They called for more funding to facilitate the end of the ISS’s operations and avert a potentially catastrophic unplanned deorbit.
Cracks aboard the space station have been a long-running concern. Over the years, air leaks have also hindered operations – the source of one of those leaks was pinpointed thanks to floating tea leaves.
At the time of writing, NASA aims to deorbit the ISS by 2030. The space agency has contracted SpaceX to develop US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) to safely remove the ISS from orbit within that timeframe.
MORE HERE:
https://interestingengineering.com/space/iss-enters-riskiest-period-nasa-warns?group=test_a
Apparently it is not possible to do even a partial disassembly into smaller components.
Maybe the next version should be designed with the question in mind, what the hell happens at EOL ??