Since 2000, astronauts have been living and working on the space station, conducting over 3,300 scientific experiments above our heads.
A number of ISS segments have been maintained by the US, Russia, Japan, Europe, and Canada since 1998. Following the Cold War, a new era of international collaboration began with the agreements to jointly operate the space station.
However, when those contracts expire, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been awarded a $843 million (£666.4 million) contract to remove the space station from orbit.
As per NASA, the business is planning to construct a vehicle that can tow the space station through the atmosphere, where it will “destructively break up”.
Together with the SpaceX vehicle, it will then crash into the ocean far from populous regions.
According to NASA’s assistant administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate Ken Bowersox, the orbiting laboratory continues to serve as a model for collaborations, science, and exploration in space for the good of mankind.
NASA will assume ownership of the deorbit spacecraft after it has been developed and run it for the duration of its mission, but SpaceX will develop it.
