Point Nemo: Graveyard of the Faulty Satellites
Point Nemo is a spot that is about 1,450 nautical miles from any spot of land. It is a perfect place to dump dead or dying spacecraft. This remote oceanic location is located at coordinates 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, about 2,688 kilometers from the nearest land—Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands, to the north; Motu Nui, one of the Easter Islands, to the northeast; and Maher Island, part of Antarctica, to the south.
This is why it’s home to what NASA calls its spacecraft cemetery. Smaller satellites end up at Point Nemo since the heat from the friction of the air burns up the satellite as it falls toward Earth at thousands of miles per hour. The problem is larger objects, like Tiangong-1. It is the first Chinese space station, which China launched in September 2011 and weighs about ...