NASA Will Build New Spacecraft To Safely Disintegrate The International Space Station
To destruct something, you must create something new. And that's exactly what NASA is doing as it looks to safely bring the International Space Station (ISS) back to Earth. By the end of this decade, the ISS would have to be disintegrated in a controlled manner in the Earth's atmosphere.
To achieve this safely, NASA is developing a spacecraft, as revealed in a US budget allocation worth $27.2 billion to NASA for the year 2024 that includes $180 million to develop a "new space tug" that would help deorbit the ISS.
"The International Space Station will need to be safely deorbited at the end of its operational life as the United States transitions to lower-cost commercial space stations. Rather than relying on Russian systems that may not be able to accomplish this task, the Budget provides $180 million to initiate the development of a new space tug that may also be useful for other space transportation missions," the budget allocation stated.
Bringing ISS back
If approved by US Congress, the budget would aid the development of a tug to help disintegrate the ISS safely. At a press conference on March 14, NASA's human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders said that their actual cost estimate was a "little short of about $1 billion" but still called the price a "health start " to "get that critical capability onboard."
Also read:?'Hologram Doctors' Successfully Treat Astronauts Aboard International Space Station
The current plan for bringing the station down relies upon Progress cargo vehicles that are provided by Russia. In the last year, Russia has stated its unwillingness to keep supporting the ISS, especially amid the Ukraine war. This could happen as soon as next year as Russia focuses on building an outpost in low Earth orbit.
Also read:?Uber Eats Delivered Food In Space For Astronauts On International Space Station
NASA's Artemis lunar mission is also on track. The launches of Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 will take place in November 2024 and December 2025 respectively. The former will send astronauts around the Moon while the latter will land humans on the Moon again, marking the first time this would happen since 1972.
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