NASA Recruits Elon Musk for an ISS Mission

Ethan Wong

July 5, 2024

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan commissioned the start of a 10-year project to put a space station into Earth’s orbit. The International Space Station (ISS) is one of the most significant feats of engineering, created from countless labor-intensive spacewalks and Space Shuttle missions. Today, it is so cluttered with technology and new features that it is frankly painful to identify every part or module and understand their functions. 

On November 20th, 1998, the Zarya spacecraft was launched into Earth’s orbit aboard a Proton rocket, marking the first step toward Reagan’s goal. This lonely spacecraft would soon be joined by the Unity Module–the first contribution to the station by the U.S.–in an 11-day mission carried by STS-88 (Endeavor) on December 4th, 1998 (The Zarya module was later connected with the Zvezda module on July 12th, 2000). To connect the two modules, a human-controlled robotic arm, Canadarm, aboard the Shuttle would connect Zarya and Unity. More modules were soon added to the ISS, including the Quest Airlock in 2001 which allowed spacewalks for ISS construction. Solar arrays and trusses were added to power the station, tremendously expanding its size. The Kibo, and Columbus, laboratory modules were soon installed onto the ISS, allowing astronauts to conduct over 3300 experiments.  

However, NASA aims to retire the ISS and crash it into the Pacific Ocean within the next 5-7 years, as their contract with Russia ends in 2028, and they have agreed with the ESA and other countries to continue the ISS’s lifespan up until 2030. Additionally, the ISS has started to weaken in its structural integrity, and according to NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox, “[t]his decision also supports NASA’s plans for future commercial destinations and allows for the continued use of space near Earth.” 

So how does NASA plan to remove the ISS from space? 

Just last week, NASA awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX with an 843 million dollar contract to build a launch vehicle capable of “guiding” the International Space Station from low-Earth orbit into the ocean. As Scientific American points out, there have been countless debates regarding the destruction of the ISS. For instance, some people encourage the preservation of the space station, suggesting that it be moved to high-Earth orbit; however, this would be costly and inevitably contribute to the abundance of space debris despite living in a higher orbit (would also naturally drift back down to Earth). On SpaceNews, Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of Deep Space Industries, stated that the ISS “must be preserved for future generations. It is without doubt nor question one of humanity’s greatest achievements…” However, NASA has decided to send the ISS home, recognizing the impracticality of disassembling a space station that was never intended to be broken, or attempting to preserve it as a historical piece for future space tourists. Furthermore, they considered repurposing materials or technology, yet realized that the lengths to build the station (over a hundred spacewalks and 27 space shuttles), the outdated technology (going back to the 90s), and logistical effort was not worth a disassembly. One more proposal I’ll mention that NASA rejected was to basically explode the ISS in orbit; consequently, over 220 million pieces of space junk would be produced, preventing low-Earth orbit spacecraft launches.
 

As for SpaceX, they are now tasked with constructing a Deorbit Vehicle for the ISS within a short timeframe, as many of its current technologies like the Falcon and Starship rockets will not be helpful in moving the ISS. While designs have not been publicly announced yet, the Deorbit Vehicle will most likely need to assist the space station in sinking as close to Earth as possible within low-Earth orbit. From there, it will use engines to push the ISS through the atmosphere, timing it perfectly so any debris that falls apart will not collide with cities or people. From reading about it, the mission sounds incredibly dangerous–the ISS being huge and fragile when compared to the descent of spacecraft capsules reentering Earth’s atmosphere. However, NASA has confirmed this as the best choice for disposing of the International Space Station, and with SpaceX in charge of the descent initiative, the ISS will be in good hands during its “touchdown.”