International Space Station program with on-orbit refurbishment in mind. According to the Outer Space Treaty the United States is legally responsible for all modules it has launched. In ISS planning, NASA examined options including returning the station to Earth via shuttle missions (deemed too expensive, as the station(USOS) is not designed for disassembly and this would require at least 27 shuttle missions), natural orbital decay with random reentry similar to Skylab, boosting the station to a higher altitude (which would simply delay reentry) and a controlled targeted de-orbit to a remote ocean area. The technical feasibility of a controlled targeted deorbit into a remote
Transit Research and Attitude Control or destroyed by the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test on July 9, 1962 and subsequent radiation belt.) It is expected to orbit for 800 years at an altitude of about . The first poem to be launched into orbit about the Earth was inscribed on the instrument panel of TRAAC. Entitled "Space Prober" and written by Prof. Thomas G. Bergin of Yale University, it reads in part: Transit Research and Attitude Control The Transit Research and Attitude Control (TRAAC) satellite was launched by the U. S. Navy from Cape Canaveral along with Transit 4B on November 15, 1961. The 109