NASA has selected SpaceX to develop a spacecraft to deorbit the International Space Station in 2030. The contract is worth $843 million. The department made the announcement on Wednesday..
The International Space Station is nearing the end of its operational life, and while plans for a new privately owned space station gain steam, the station that started it all will need to be safely decommissioned in 10 years’ time.
Few details about the U.S. deorbiter, as NASA is calling it, have been released so far. But the space agency made clear that the vehicle will be different from SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which carries cargo and crew to the space station, and other vehicles that perform services for NASA. Unlike those vehicles, which SpaceX will build and operate, NASA will take ownership of the U.S. deorbiter once it is developed and will operate it throughout the mission.
Spacecraft and the International Space Station break apart destructively as they re-enter the atmosphere, and one of SpaceX’s biggest challenges going forward is ensuring the station can do so without endangering populated areas.
The U.S. deorbiter launch contract will be announced separately.
NASA and its partners had considered using Russia’s Roscosmos Progress spacecraft to carry out the deorbit mission, but studies have shown that a new spacecraft is needed for the deorbit maneuver. The safe termination of the station is a joint responsibility of the five space agencies operating at the ISS (NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the national space corporation Roscosmos), but it is unclear whether the contract amount will be paid by all countries.
TechCrunch has reached out to NASA for more information and will update this post if we hear back.
