Washington: The International Space Station (ISS) is counted among the most expensive scientific projects in the world. Billions of dollars have been spent to build it, but now NASA has decided to destroy it. Its complete plan has also been made and Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has got the contract for this. You still have a question in your mind, then what will happen to the astronauts working on the space station and where will the astronauts work in future? So don’t worry, a complete plan has also been made for this. Astronauts will be deployed on the space station ‘Axiom Space’ built by SpaceX in the future.
NASA and Elon Musk’s company have prepared a plan to safely remove the space station from Earth’s orbit and drop it on Earth. This work will be carried out in early 2031, when it will turn 32 years old. NASA had given SpaceX a contract of $843 million (about Rs 70 billion) to demolish the largest structure ever built outside the Earth.
Launched in 1998
The current space station is now showing signs of age. In 1998, Russia and the US launched its first part. Astronauts arrived in it two years later. Europe and Japan added their own parts to it and Canada provided robotic arms. By the time NASA’s shuttles retired in 2011, the size of the station had become equal to a football field. It weighed 1 million pounds (430,000 kilograms). NASA estimates that this station will run at least till 2030. NASA’s goal is that private companies launch their own space stations. This will make it easier for NASA to focus on missions to the Moon and Mars.
How will it be demolished?
The space station is raised periodically by spacecraft so that it remains in orbit at an altitude of about 420 kilometers. If this is not done, it will continue to descend and at one point it will fall out of orbit uncontrollably. NASA wants to drop it in a remote part of the South Pacific or possibly the Indian Ocean. This means launching a spacecraft and taking it towards the water. SpaceX has won the contract to build this deorbit vehicle. SpaceX plans to use a simple Dragon capsule. This will be the same kind of capsule that carries supplies and astronauts to the space station. It will have a very large trunk, which will contain a record 46 engines and more than 16,000 kilograms of fuel.
According to NASA, the capsule will be launched one and a half years before the date of destroying the space station. At that time the astronauts will remain on the station. The station will be slowly lowered and the crew members will leave the spacecraft and return to Earth six months before it is destroyed. When the station descends to 220 kilometers, Dragon will bring it down four days later. Meanwhile, work will continue on the plan to establish Axiom Space in space. This will start in 2026 and four new parts will be launched to connect with the ISS. Before the ISS is over, Axiom will be converted into a new private space station.