Posted on 02/22/2025 9:36:24 AM PST by Patriot777
Elon Musk's SpaceX is getting ready to take the International Space Station out of orbit
Elon Musk says it’s about time for SpaceX to deorbit the International Space Station — “as soon as possible.” “It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility,” the SpaceX CEO wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. “Let’s go to Mars.” NASA awarded SpaceX a contract worth up to $843 million to deorbit the ISS no earlier than 2030, an endeavor that the company expects will cost it about $680 million, according to federal documents. SpaceX has been tasked with creating a new vehicle — described as a “tug boat” — which will be used to push the station into the Pacific Ocean from space.
SpaceX’s “mission suitability” — which weighs the firm’s small business utilization, management approach, and technical approach — scored an 822 out of 1,000. That allowed it to outperform rivals Northrop Grumman Systems (NOC) and AlphaSpaces, which received poorer scores.
Joining them will be Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew to the ISS with Boeing’s (BA) Starliner, but stayed behind when the aircraft returned to Earth without them because of safety concerns. Musk on Thursday alleged that Former President Joe Biden’s administration “flatly refused” an offer for SpaceX to return Wilmore and Williams because of political reasons. He wrote that SpaceX would have “made it work” within NASA’s annual budget. However, Biden had a deal with SpaceX to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth later this year.
“I can tell you unequivocally, from a personal standpoint, that politics has not played any part in this decision,” then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in August after announcing that the Starliner would not return with the astronauts. “It absolutely has nothing to do with it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
It is my profound hope and has been in my prayers that Mr. Musk and President Donald Trump get every single astronaut off of the ISS, so as to yesterday.
Whether or not Putin will decide to bring their cosmonauts back to Earth immediately, those men deserve better than the horrific manner in which they've been treated, threatened if they don't perform whatever duties, etc., including the living conditions of their families.
Those cosmonauts are strong, courageous. On the other hand, fearful likely of any complaint they may have toward just how absolutely dangerous conditions are onboard the ISS.
The thing is quite literally falling apart, springing leaks that threaten an entire loss of atmosphere, and I've no idea as to how many EVAs have been being performed at present to address just routine maintenance / replacements of parts, not to mention massive interdictions to keep everyone alive on the within of the station.
The ISS has thrusters which are used to adjust for orbital decay or other minor course corrections. Why can’t these be used to deorbit it?
As far as doing what needs to be done about the space station, ask yourself:
Who are you going to trust, people who don’t know the difference between a boy and a girl, or someone who can parallel park a rocket booster?
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is getting ready to take the International Space Station out of orbit
...Well, that would be one way to return to Earth those two folks that Boeing stranded there.
Correct. SpaceX is not required for this, other than to bring up fuel for the thrusters.
But in a larger sense, now you know why Russia is ending its involvement with ISS. Russia was the only way to deliver US astronauts to ISS for about a decade when the Shuttle was de-commissioned.
They are going to have their own space station because they want to do national security missions, which they acknowledge they signed a document prohibiting on ISS. And, of course, the Chinese already have their own station, to which they are adding modules.
Great answer if I may say so!
Predictability.
They have to plunge the station down into the atmosphere so that they will know precisely where the debris will fall.
The use of existing space station propulsion systems,
such as the Russian Progress vehicles, would provide an
alternative to an uncontrolled re-entry prior to the arrivalof the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV). However, these
systems do not provide sufficient margin to lower the
public risk to an acceptable level. The USDV will provide
this margin to lower the public risk to U.S. Government
standards.
**************
Why are we picking up the tab? How about requiring the other international users to pay a portion of the cost?
I’m assuming they will rescue the stranded astronauts first?.... or is it part of the same deorbiting missions? The ISS wasn’t designed to be a reentry vehicle was it? Not even in a pinch?
Why not hook a booster to it and fly the ISS to lunar orbit?
Or all the way to Mars?
Would the heat shields on the ISS hold through reentry?
Or would the ISS thrusters for maneuvering be enough to slow the ISS descent through Earth’s atmosphere, to a soft touchdown?
For what purpose? I understand it’s breaking down, which is why they want to scuttle it. The ISS is pretty big, too. I’m sure it would cost a lot of money to move it.
If it’s worn out then, bombs away!
It should be a spectacular reentry.
Bummer. I know it would be hard to do and very expensive, but I’d like to see it remain as a space museum/relic
Thanks, but, full disclosure, the part about parallel parking is not my original. I saw a Republican congressman on TV and he said something similar.
Yes, but they want to bring it down over the ocean where it can’t hurt anyone. How boring! I always thought they should send up a rocket with few tons of sand, then blow it up as it reenters over the U.S. It would cost a few billion dollars, but it would make a good show. Better than all the money that USAID spends.
It appears that Biden didn't want to make Musk look good before the election. By default, Trump would be looking good.
So Biden decided to make the astronauts wait until the election's over.
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