Elon Musk and his company SpaceX they got a NASA contract for de-orbit the International Space Station (ISS). The space agency announced the agreement that calls for SpaceX to “develop and deliver” a vehicle that will have the capability to deorbit the space station last Wednesday, securing theabsence of risks for populated areas.
Once the “deorbiter vehicle” is built, NASA will take ownership and manage its operations.
NASA has opened the tender for the supply of the deorbiting vehicle in September 2023. This new vehicle is needed because NASA and other ISS stakeholders have decided that theorbital habitat has outlived its usefulness. Smaller, privately owned space stations are seen as superior options for future exploration.
The space station weighs over 400,000 kilograms, a significantly greater mass than the 2,600 kilograms of spent batteries deorbited in 2021, all of which did not burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Approximately 750 grams of material they hit the roof of a house in Florida, leading to a lawsuit to cover repair costs and other expenses totaling $80,000. There ISS is big enough to cause much more damage than a simple hole in a roof, which is why NASA wanted a specialized vehicle to make sure the operation is done right the first time.
NASA’s initial estimate for the vehicle and the operation required to decommission the ISS was just under $1 billion.
NASA’s announcement specifies that the “Single-bid contract has a total potential value of $843 million”leaving room for other mission costs, including Vehicle launch price. NASA and other ISS partner agencies have no objections to whether the deorbiting vehicle is an entirely new design or an adaptation of an existing design.
In the meantime, NASA is trying to figure out when it can deorbit something much smaller: the Starliner capsule built by Boeingconsidered not fit for flight except in case of emergency. The ISS crew has a couple of spacewalks planned, which will likely push Starliner’s departure to July at best.
