NASA has selected SpaceX to develop a spacecraft that will deorbit the International Space Station in 2030, a contract valued at up to $843 million. the agency announced Wednesday.
The ISS is nearing the end of its operational life, and as plans for new commercially owned space stations ramp up, the one that started it all will eventually have to be safely removed by the end of the decade.
Few details have been released so far about the American deorbiting vehicle, as NASA calls the craft. However, NASA clarified that the vehicle will be different from SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which delivers cargo and crew to the station, and other vehicles that provide services for the agency. Unlike these vehicles, which are built and operated by SpaceX, NASA will take ownership of the American deorbiting vehicle after development and operate it throughout its mission.
Both the vehicle and the ISS will destructively break up when they re-enter the atmosphere, and one of the big tasks ahead for SpaceX is to ensure that the station re-enters in a way that does not endanger populated areas.
The launch contract for the US deorbiting vehicle will be announced separately.
NASA and its partners had been evaluating using a Russian Roscosmos Progress spacecraft to carry out the deorbit mission, but studies indicated that a new spacecraft was needed for the deorbit maneuver. The safe demise of the station is a responsibility shared by the five space agencies operating on the ISS (NASA, Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the State Space Corporation Roscosmos), but it is not clear whether The amount of the contract is that all countries pay.
TechCrunch has contacted NASA for more details and we will update this post if we hear back.