The End of an Era: NASA and SpaceX’s Plan to Decommission the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) has served as a home for astronauts for over two decades, but its days are now numbered. NASA recently announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, where SpaceX will receive up to $843 million to assist in the decommissioning of the ISS. The plan involves utilizing a superpowered, extra-large Dragon spaceship to push the ISS out of orbit and into a controlled descent into a remote ocean location by 2031.

In order to achieve this ambitious goal, SpaceX plans to modify one of its Cargo Dragon spacecrafts by adding a new high-powered trunk and 46 Draco engines. This upgraded “deorbit vehicle” will have double the length of a regular Dragon ship, six times more propellant, and four times the power. The final burn to maneuver the ISS into its final descent will be the most challenging aspect of the mission, requiring precise calculations and resistance to atmospheric drag forces.

The target location for the ISS’s descent is a remote area in the ocean, such as the South Pacific. NASA’s main priority is to ensure that the massive spacecraft lands safely in the open ocean without posing any risks to populated areas. The opportunity to be part of ending this significant chapter in space exploration is seen as an honor by those involved in the project.

SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker, expressed her excitement about SpaceX’s role in this historic mission. The company’s Dragon spacecraft made history in 2012 by becoming the first commercial vehicle to dock with the ISS, and now it will play a crucial role in decommissioning the station. The goal is for Dragon to be the last spacecraft to ever dock with the ISS, marking a symbolic end to this era of space exploration.

NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, plan to continue utilizing the ISS until 2030, after which they will transition to new space stations. NASA envisions a future where they are one of many customers on private space stations, signaling a shift towards increased collaboration with commercial space companies. The decommissioning of the ISS is just one step in NASA’s broader vision for the future of space exploration.