As we already published the article in which we broke the news of the demolishing of the ISS (International Space Station), SpaceX has now shared a sketch of a possible Dragon Spacecraft that they may use for this mission.

On July 17, NASA and SpaceX officials provided the latest details about the Deorbit Vehicle Spacecraft, in which NASA and SpaceX decided to burn the ISS when this massive football stadium-sized structure enters the Earth’s orbit and drop the remaining debris into the sea. For this mission, NASA gave SpaceX an $843 million contract.

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This deorbit vehicle spacecraft will be based on SpaceX’s latest Dragon spacecraft, but it will be modified by the engineers and be four times more powerful than the Dragon spacecraft. The director of this modified Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX, Sarah Walker, said this spacecraft will consist of 46 Draco thrusters, 16 to control the behavior and 30 to perform the maneuvers needed to lower the station’s orbit at the end of its life. This spacecraft will have multiple solar panels to generate electricity from the sun.

Dana Weigel, ISS Program Manager, said, This Dragon spacecraft will be attached to the ISS, and then it will pull the ISS back towards the Earth for 12 to 18 months.” This deorbit vehicle has an estimated mass of more than 30,000 kilograms, including propellant, which has a mass of 16,000 kilograms.

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According to NASA officials, the astronauts will stay on Earth for up to six months before entering the ISS. He said that the astronauts will leave the station when the ISS reaches 200 km from the Earth’s orbit, and currently the ISS is 400 km above the Earth’s orbit. 

Why is NASA demolishing the ISS?

Russia and America both launched the initial pieces of the ISS in 1998 later, Europe and Japan added their own segments to the ISS. In 2011, the station had grown to the size of a football stadium, having a mass of approximately 1 million pounds, which is 430,000 kilograms. The ISS has now become old, and according to NASA, this international space station will last until 2030.

Why not bring it back to Earth?

According to NASA, any such effort of dismantling the ISS into space orbit would be dangerous for engineers. Also, there is no spacecraft as big that pulls the ISS back toward Earth.

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Will anything be saved?

NASA wants to keep some small items for the museum safe, like the bell of a spacecraft, panels with patches, and other items. According to NASA, all those small items will be brought back by the Dragon spacecraft in 2029 or 2030, but unfortunately, no big items will be able to be brought back to Earth. The ISS will be destroyed with everything in it.

Has this been done before?

NASA’s first space station, “SKYLAB,” crashed down in 1979 while its debris scattered around Australia and in the Pacific Ocean. NASA expressed their views and said that at that time if we had a rocket to control Skylabs or move it again into its orbit, we would definitely go for this plan, but unfortunately, at that time, we didn’t have a rocket.

How ISS will bring back to Earth?

The ISS is currently 420 kilometers above the surface of the earth. The Dragon spacecraft will pull back the ISS towards lower and lower Earth once it crosses the Earth orbit, then it will start burning in the air and NASA has decided that the debris of the ISS will fall somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean.

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