The US space agency NASA has chosen SpaceX to produce a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of its service life.
NASA recently announced that SpaceX will design, develop and build the spacecraft. The vehicle will aim to guide the ISS through a final re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. NASA calls the spacecraft the US Deorbit Vehicle. The agency said the deorbiting operation will take place sometime after the station’s “operational life,” which is set for 2030.
NASA said its contract with SpaceX to build the orbiter was $843 million. This does not include costs for launching the vehicle. The agency said the launch would be part of a future contract.
California-based SpaceX has an existing relationship with NASA. The company has been established as a reliable private partner of the agency since 2020. Since then, SpaceX has made regular trips to transport astronauts and supplies to the ISS.
NASA announced last year that it had decided on a plan to deorbit the ISS after service ends in 2030. The agency and its international partners agreed that the orbiting laboratory would one day reach the end of its technical life. The station has been constantly inhabited since November 2, 2000.
In a statement, NASA said it chose the deorbit method with a specially designed vehicle to ensure a “safe and responsible deorbit of the ISS in a controlled manner.”
The space agency considered other choices or options to retire the ISS. One option would have involved using several Russian spacecraft in a deorbit operation. Another plan called for disassembling the space station in space and transporting its parts back to Earth. Another option was to move the ISS to a higher orbit, where it would remain out of commission.
But NASA officials have said none of these options met the agency’s safety and effectiveness requirements. The agency noted that while SpaceX will develop the deorbit spacecraft, NASA will “take ownership after development and operate it throughout its mission.”
Neither NASA nor SpaceX has released further information about the planned deorbit vehicle. But Bill Spetch, a NASA ISS program manager, recently spoke to reporters about it. He said the current plan is for the deorbit to be based on the design of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
Versions of the Dragon spacecraft have been used to transport astronauts and supplies to the ISS. Spetch noted that while the new deorbit vehicle would be based on the Dragon, its design would require “some modifications and changes.”
Ken Bowersox is the associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA’s Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. He said in a statement that having a deorbit vehicle “will help NASA and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible. transition in low Earth orbit at the end of station operations.”
Bowersox noted that while the current ISS may not continue forever, it will remain “a actIoN for science, exploration and partnerships” until his service ends in 2030.
After the ISS is retired, NASA plans to use privately developed space laboratories for its space research needs. The agency has already selected several American companies to develop future space stations.
NASA has said that a deorbit operation would begin by slowing the descent of the ISS. altitude level. Officials have said this is likely to be accomplished by the ISS and its systems without the need for additional spacecraft.
But the last part of the operation is the re-entry. This will require guiding the ISS in the Earth’s atmosphere towards a target in an unpopulated area of the ocean.
The intended landing site has been identified as a place called Point Nemo in the South Pacific Ocean. This is a stretch of open water between New Zealand and the southernmost part of South America. The US National Ocean Service identifies Point Nemo as the point in the ocean farthest from land.
NASA predicts that most of the ISS equipment will burn up or boil during the intense heat of atmospheric reentry. But he says some dense or heat-resistant elements are expected to survive and descend into the ocean.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from NASA, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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The words in this story
inhabited – adjective. describing a place where people live
modify – c. to change something to make it better
transition – n. a change from one system or method to another, often slow
actIoN – n. a plan that shows how someone will design, build, or achieve something
altitude – n. the vertical distance of an object above a given level (such as sea level)
boil – v. to turn or cause something to turn from a solid or liquid state to a gas