NASA has tasked Elon Musk’s SpaceX with building a vehicle powerful enough to pull the International Space Station (ISS) out of orbit.
SpaceX will be given $843 million to build the structure before the ISS reaches the end of its operational life in 2030, NASA said in a statement on Wednesday.
“NASA announced SpaceX has been selected to develop and deliver the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle that will provide the capability to deorbit the space station and ensure avoidance of risk to populated areas,” per the statement.
The vehicle will attach itself to the ISS and pull it out of its path, which is about 250 miles above Earth’s surface.
NASA started asking for proposals from aerospace companies for the US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) in September, asking for price quotes.
Upon securing the contract, SpaceX responded to the news on X, saying: “SpaceX is honored to be entrusted by @NASA to support this critical mission.”
As the ISS is decommissioned, NASA intends to transition into smaller, privately owned space stations closer to the Earth’s surface, or in Low Earth Orbit.
“U.S. industry is developing these commercial destinations to begin operations in the late 2020s for both government and private-sector customers,” NASA’s website states.
The ISS, launched in 1998, is a 925,000-pound structure that measures 357 feet end-to-end, almost the length of a football field.
It has been managed by five space agencies since its launch: NASA, CSA (Canadian Space Agency), ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos.
The statement said that the US, Canada, Japan, and participating countries of the ESA have remained committed to operating the ISS until it retires in 2030. Russia has committed to maintaining operations until at least 2028.
The structure has much to show for its years in operation, having supported 3,300 experiments that could not have been possible on Earth, per NASA’s statement on Wednesday.
SpaceX has been NASA’s commercial partners for years. It was one of the two American companies NASA tapped in 2014 to explore commercial space transport.
SpaceX and NASA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
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