Inside NASA’s ambitious plan to bring the ISS crashing back to Earth

The International Space Station (ISS), as well as being the most expensive object ever made, can also lay claim to being one of the most cooperative endeavours in scientific history. Since the beginning of the century, it has been continuously inhabited by a total of 280 crew members – and counting – from 23 countries. While leaders on the ground have been squabbling or even threatening war, astronauts and cosmonauts have been circling Earth unconstrained by geopolitical borders, floating in serene microgravity.

But nothing lasts forever. Sometime around 2030, the ISS project will come to an end. From its orbit about 400…