Bloomberg -- Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been picked by NASA to build a spacecraft to guide the International Space Station out of orbit and have it burn up in Earth’s atmosphere after the lab is retired in 2030. The NASA contract is worth as much as $843 million, the US agency said in a statement on Wednesday. Along with the ISS, a home-away-from-home for astronauts for years, SpaceX’s new vehicle “is expected to destructively breakup as part of the reentry process,” NASA said. SpaceX will develop the so-called deor bit spacecraft and NASA will take ownership after development and operate it throughout its mission, the agency said. Story by Loren Grush
The planned deorbit mission is a crucial part of NASA’s long-term transition strategy for low-Earth orbit operations. The International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited since November 2000, has served as a hub for scientific research, technology demonstrations, and international cooperation between the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency. As the ISS reaches the end of its service life, NASA is working with commercial partners to develop privately owned space stations that will take over its role. The deorbit spacecraft will be responsible for safely maneuvering the massive 420-ton orbital complex into a controlled reentry trajectory, ensuring that debris lands in an uninhabited area of the ocean, minimizing risks to people and property on Earth.
This mission echoes similar efforts from the past, such as the controlled deorbit of Russia’s Mir space station in 2001, which was also guided to a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. However, the ISS is significantly larger and more complex, requiring a specially designed vehicle with advanced propulsion, navigation, and safety systems. The collaboration with SpaceX underscores NASA’s increasing reliance on commercial space companies for critical operations, reflecting a shift toward public-private partnerships as the agency prepares for the next era of human spaceflight and deep-space exploration.
