The lifespan of the ISS is already counting down, and NASA announced back in January 2022 that it would deorbit it in January 2031, and the wreckage fell into the South Pacific region.
However, how to safely dispose of such a behemoth is a headache, and it cannot cause any harm to people and the environment, and this burden falls on Musk's SpaceX.
Recently, NASA offered a high-priced contract worth 843 million US dollars (about 6.13 billion yuan) to develop a new deorbiting vehicle for the eventual "dismantling" of the International Space Station.
Under the contract, the vehicle will deorbit the ISS while ensuring a controlled crash into densely populated areas.
NASA says it's a responsible approach to low-Earth orbit safety.
The International Space Station (ISS) is the ninth manned space station in human history (the previous eight were all from the Soviet Union/Russia), and it has been 26 years since the launch of the first module, the Dawning functional cargo module, in November 1998.
At present, it consists of two parts, of which the Russian orbital segment (ROS) is operated by Russia, and the US orbital segment (USOS) is jointly operated by the United States, ESA, Japan, Canada, etc., although Russia plans to withdraw after 2024.
As of March 2024, 279 people from 22 countries have visited the ISS.
The International Space Station is the most expensive single project in the history of spaceflight, with a total cost of $150 billion as of 2010.
Source: Fast Technology