NASA has revealed its plan to retire the International Space Station (ISS) and bring it back to Earth. The ISS, a unique space station in lower Earth orbit, supports collaborative projects involving five space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. This space station is often visible from Earth’s surface and is the largest artificial object in space, serving as the largest satellite in low Earth orbit.
The agency has disclosed a $1 billion plan to develop a new orbital vehicle, called the US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), that will play a crucial role in safely returning the ISS. NASA released an industry solicitation for this space tug, which will move the ISS from its current position 175 miles above Earth to approximately 75 miles, initiating the deorbiting process.
NASA aims to procure a safe, reliable, and cost-effective deorbit vehicle to meet the ISS’s end-of-life deorbit mission requirements. This operation involves bringing the ISS safely down to an altitude of about 250 km, and then the USDV takes over for the final stages of deorbiting.
As astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell explained, the ISS’s safe descent is a complex task due to factors like wind gusts, and losing control during re-entry can be problematic. However, this process, though challenging, has been executed in the past with space stations like Mir. Paraphrasing this information, NASA intends to retire the ISS and is actively seeking a reliable vehicle to bring it safely back to Earth.
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