It’s no secret that the International Space Station has an expiration date. The only variable is how it will be brought to Earth. NASA has now tapped SpaceX for the mission and is paying the company $843 million to bring the ISS back safely.
SpaceX, the private space company owned by Elon Musk, will use the money from the NASA contract to build a deorbital vehicle. NASA will then approach a contractor to launch this vehicle into space to dock with the ISS. The final step in the plan is to have the vehicle slowly deorbit the ISS so that it falls back to Earth in an uninhabited area where it can be safely retrieved without harming anyone.
SpaceX said it was “honored to be trusted by NASA to support this critical mission,” in a post Wednesday on X.
“The selection of America’s Deorbit vehicle for the International Space Station will help NASA and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible transition to low Earth orbit at the end of the station’s operation,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for the Mission Directorate for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters. he said in a statement. “The Orbiting Laboratory remains a blueprint for science, exploration and partnership in space for the benefit of all.”
NASA says a second contract will be awarded in the future to launch a deorbital vehicle into space once it is built. Since SpaceX has quite a bit of experience launching things into space — like satellites providing broadband and manned missions to the ISS — it’s possible the company will get that contract, too.
When is the ISS scheduled to return to Earth?
The ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2030, which is also when it is scheduled to return to Earth. He will be busy until retirement. NASA plans to commercialize the space station within this decade so that companies can use it before it is decommissioned. (The ultimate goal is for private companies to have installations in low Earth orbit that don’t have to be maintained by NASA.)
Otherwise, the ISS lived a full life. Construction missions began in 1998 and the ISS has been manned continuously for the past 22 years.
Why is the ISS being deorbited?
NASA says the structure’s ultimate life is due to thermal cycling; attrition from docking and disconnecting spacecraft; and other factors.
In short, NASA says that after 2030, the ISS simply won’t be safe enough for humans to be there.
How will the space station be brought down?
It’s easier than you think. According to NASA, an American deorbital vehicle manufactured by SpaceX will dock with the ISS. From there, the vehicle will use its propulsion system to push the ISS into a lower orbit.
Then the drag of Earth’s atmosphere takes over and brings the ISS back to Earth. The controlled deorbit procedure will be calculated so that the ISS debris will fall into the ocean where it cannot harm anyone.
Why does NASA use a deorbital vehicle?
Other potential methods to get the ISS out of space are either too difficult, too expensive, or both. NASA considered deconstructing the ISS and putting it back together piece by piece. However, the agency says that initial assembly took 27 NASA flights and that disassembly may take even longer because the ISS is more difficult to disassemble than to build.
Another option was to send it into a higher orbit so that it could join the Great Garbage Shell that already exists in space. NASA says the problem with this approach is that it would take too much propellant to lift the massive space station into a “graveyard orbit.” The ISS’s current capabilities could raise its orbit slightly, but without additional, costly assistance, it would remain in low Earth orbit.
A third option considered was to simply let it fall out of space on its own. Of course, the problem there is pretty self-explanatory: If the ISS falls out of space on its own, NASA won’t be able to control where it lands. This means it could land in a populated area and harm people.