Space firm SpaceX will have to ensure that the international space station ISS disappears safely within a few years. When the time comes, the station will have to burn up in the atmosphere. Elon Musk’s company was tasked with developing and building a machine for this purpose.
The US space agency NASA calls the new recovery vehicle a Deorbit Vehicle. When a probe must come down from its orbit around the Earth (deorbit), this is generally done by braking the machine. It can then be gripped by gravity. The ISS cannot do this and therefore needs help. SpaceX will receive around $843 million for this, or around 790 million euros.
Braking will bring the spacecraft back down in a controlled manner. The latter will largely burn up in the atmosphere. The remaining debris should end up in the southern Pacific Ocean, far from the inhabited world. This is where the risk of problems is lowest.
The ISS is the result of a collaboration between the United States, Europe, Russia, Canada and Japan. The first part was launched in 1998, and the space station has been permanently inhabited since 2000. It is the size of a football field. Its lifespan extends until approximately 2030. The United States wants to focus on more distant space missions, for example to the Moon and Mars. They want to entrust the construction and operation of space stations to commercial firms.
