NASA has announced that SpaceX will be building the ship to return the International Space Station (ISS) back into Earth’s atmosphere and to the Pacific Ocean once it is retired in 2030. The contract with SpaceX has a potential value of $843 million. The spacecraft, known as the “US Deorbit Vehicle,” will be developed and delivered by Elon Musk’s company.
Ken Bowersox, an official with NASA, stated that the US Deorbit Vehicle is essential for ensuring a safe and responsible transition of the ISS into low Earth orbit at the end of its operations. The spacecraft weighs 430,000 kilograms and is the largest single structure ever built in space. NASA plans to take ownership of the vehicle after SpaceX builds it and will control operations throughout the mission.
NASA engineers expect the ISS to disintegrate in three stages upon atmospheric re-entry. While most of the material will vaporize, large chunks are expected to survive. To minimize any potential harm caused by debris from the ISS, NASA has chosen Point Nemo, a remote area in the Pacific Ocean known as a common “graveyard” for satellites and spacecraft, as its final resting place.
Since its first launch in 1998, the ISS has been continuously inhabited by an international crew since 2001. Although several countries have committed to operating it until 2030, Russia has only pledged support until 2028. Several commercial companies like Jeff Bezos’ Axiom Space and Blue Origin are currently working on developing successors to replace it when it retires from service in 2030.
