What Do We Do With Dead Spacecraft? Preparing for the End of Missions

We try to avoid thinking about it, but spacecraft are machines that break down and eventually fail. Some can last for years, others decades, but in the end they’ll be gone forever. 

Space agencies do consider how these missions will end, and put plans in place to wrap them up when the time comes. But sometimes they have no choice, and dead spacecraft return to Earth with no way of controlling when and where it’s going to happen.

What Do We Do With Aging Spacecraft? Preparing for the End of Missions (YouTube)