In the coming years, the International Space Station will be pushed by a vehicle built by SpaceX towards the atmosphere, NASA announced this Wednesday, June 26.
NASA announced this Wednesday, June 26, that it had selected SpaceX to build a vehicle capable of pushing the International Space Station back towards the Earth’s atmosphere, thus allowing it to be destroyed after its retirement in 2030.
The contract won by Elon Musk’s billionaire company has a total value of up to $843 million, according to a NASA press release.
The American space agency had already announced in the past its intention to plunge the International Space Station (ISS) into the Earth’s atmosphere above an ocean after its end of life. Some pieces will disintegrate during the maneuver, others more resistant will end up in the sea.
Destruction in the atmosphere
But this operation requires the development of a powerful vehicle, capable of maneuvering a space station weighing some 430,000 kg. The SpaceX vehicle should make it possible “to deorbit the Space Station and avoid any risk for inhabited areas,” NASA said.
Just like the ISS, this vehicle should break up upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the space agency said. Once developed, it will belong to NASA, which will be responsible for operating it during its mission.
The United States, Japan, Canada and the Europeans have committed to continuing ISS operations until 2030. Russia has committed until 2028. “The safe removal of the International Space Station from orbit is the responsibility of all five space agencies,” NASA wrote soberly on Wednesday.
Despite the war in Ukraine, the ISS remains one of the rare areas of cooperation between Washington and Moscow.
In April, during a hearing at the American Congress, NASA boss Bill Nelson nevertheless stressed the need to develop such a vehicle quickly in the United States to ensure the end of the ISS. In six years, “will we still have the same relationship to be able to bring it down with the Russians? We cannot count on that,” he said.
“So we have to start now to build this American out-of-orbit vehicle, which could bring the whole station down safely so that it doesn’t hit anyone or anything,” he added.
