Officials from NASA and SpaceX have shared fresh details about their plan to de-orbit the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of its operational life in 2030. SpaceX was awarded an $843 million contract by NASA late last month to develop a ship that will dock to the ISS and push it towards the Earth. Details revealed in NASA's selection document for the award revealed that only SpaceX and Northrop Grumman were the final contestants for the award, with SpaceX edging out because of its existing strengths of the Dragon platform.
NASA shared during a media conference earlier today that the ISS de-orbit will be a long process, and the de-orbit vehicle will dock at the station a year and a half before its final reentry burns.
SpaceX's Beefed Up Dragon Spacecraft Will Help NASA De-orbit The ISS
NASA's Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel shared the agency's plans for the multi-million dollar de-orbit vehicle. Unlike other missions to the ISS, carried out by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, the de-orbit vehicle will be operated by NASA. Subsequently, NASA will choose a launch company on its own, and Weigel shared that this decision will be taken in the future. According to her, NASA will store the vehicle and run "periodic maintenance" before launch. NASA will launch the vehicle "about one and a half years before the final reentry burn."
After docking, NASA will run a series of checkouts to ensure the vehicle is "healthy." The station will take "about a year to a year and a half in total" to drift down, with the crew "on board as long as possible" to keep it healthy, revealed the NASA official. The crew will leave the station roughly six months before its reentry.
The ISS's final de-orbit maneuvers will take place at an altitude of 220 kilometers before the vehicle starts its final de-orbit burns, shared Weigel. After this, it will take the station four days before the start of the final re-entry burns.
Because of its launch profile, especially the delta-v requirement of 57 meters per second, the de-orbit vehicle will carry more than 35,000 pounds of propellant. According to Weigel, while procuring a rocket takes at least three years before flying, NASA might "do it a bit earlier," but it will not integrate the rocket and the spacecraft until it is committed to launch. SpaceX has a "couple of different configurations across the Falcon product line" to support the mission if it comes to that, according to its director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker.
Since the de-orbit vehicle will have to effectively fly the station on its own, it will be significantly larger than SpaceX's current Dragon ships that deliver crew and cargo to the ISS. SpaceX's Walker shared that this vehicle will "need six times the useful propellant, and three to four times the power generation and storage" of the current Dragon spacecraft. This fuel will operate the ship in orbit and the burns to de-orbit the ISS, such as "orbit shaping burns to put the station in a low elliptical orbit" and a "final re-entry burn to lower the perigee to intersect with Earth at the intended location."
Later, during the call, Walker added that the vehicle will have a total of 46 Draco engines. The Dragon uses these engines for its in-space maneuvers, and they use hyperbolic fuels. According to Walker, the Dragon de-orbit vehicle will feature "46 Draco engines total. Within these, "16 are on the capsule already for attitude control. 30, um, for the delta-v maneuvers on the trunk." She added that the "somewhere between 22 and 26 " of the "aft facing Dracos" will fire at the same time for the de-orbit burn to "deliver about ten thousand newtons of thrust."
NASA's Weigel outlined that while NASA hasn't decided the precise location for the ISS's final destination on Earth, the South Pacific Ocean is one potential location. As for the mission's timeline, solar cycles will play a crucial role in helping NASA map out the station's final days. According to Weigel, "we can control the launch of the USDV, the actual time that it takes to then drift down from where we fly right now to those final altitudes that I've been talking about the burn, that's a that's a variable that's got a little bit of flexibility that we can't control."
As a result, NASA will use estimates, but right now, "the normal plan or end of life at the end of 2030 means we splash in the ocean in January of 2031."
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
