RUSSIA plans to de-orbit the International Space Station (ISS) and sink it in the Pacific Ocean after 2020, the space agency says.

Vitaly Davydov, the deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said that the ISS - like its Russian predecessor Mir - will be sunk in order to prevent space junk.

"We will be forced to sink the ISS," Davydov said in an interview posted on the Roscosmos website.



"We cannot leave it in orbit as it is a very complicated and a heavy object. There must be no space waste from it."

The ISS was launched 13 years ago and was initially expected to function for 15 years, but in March last year space agency heads agreed to extend its operation until 2020.

Asked whether a new space station will be built, Davydov said: "There are several possibilities."

The Mir space station was in operation from 1983 to 1998 before being dropped into the Pacific Ocean in 2001.

Moscow last week declared the start of "the era of the Soyuz" after the Atlantis completed its final mission, ending NASA's Space Shuttle program and leaving Russia as the dominant power in human space exploration.

The US and other nations will have to rely on Russia to ferry crews to and from the space station aboard its Soyuz spacecraft until NASA replaces its shuttle fleet.

Originally published as Russia forced to sink space station