NASA is preparing to destroy the International Space Station (ISS) and has awarded US company SpaceX a contract worth up to $843 million to safely bring it out of orbit and back to Earth.
The International Space Station glows in Earth's atmosphere in the background. (Photo: NASA)
According to NASA's plan, SpaceX's specially designed suborbital vehicle would pull the football- field-sized ISS back to Earth sometime after its operational life ends in 2030. The ISS would plunge into Earth's atmosphere at speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour before landing at a splashdown point in the ocean.
Ken Bowersox, NASA's deputy administrator, said in a statement that recovering the ISS will support NASA's plans for future destinations and enable continued use of near-Earth space.
The first components of this floating laboratory were launched in 1998 and have been home to astronauts from the US, Japan, Russia, Canada and Europe since 2000, who have completed more than 3,300 scientific experiments in low-Earth orbit.
But the space station is showing signs of age: technical faults and leaks continue to cause problems for the crew, and its contract will end in 2030.
The ISS also faces a growing threat from space debris. On June 27, nine astronauts aboard the ISS were forced to take shelter in a Boeing Starliner crew capsule after hundreds of pieces of debris from a Russian satellite threatened the safety of the space station.
The ISS being ready to be destroyed is not the first case. In 2001, the Russian space station Mir was re-launched and its remaining debris fell into the Pacific Ocean.
