NASA and SpaceX have shared details of the plan to lift the International Space Station (ISS) from orbit. The station is scheduled to sink into the ocean around 2031, Science Alert reports.
In June, NASA announced that it would pay the Russian Space Agency $843 million to help decommission the ISS. Now they have shared the details of the plan, which involves using a modified ship called Dragon.
Currently, such ships deliver cargo to the ISS and back. But the station itself weighs almost 450 tons. That is, it is much heavier than anything Dragon has dealt with before.
SraceX plans to equip the Cargo Dragon with a new powerful trunk and 46 Draco engines, which is 30 more than the regular Dragon. The resulting spacecraft will be twice as long as a conventional one and four times more powerful, but it will also use six times more fuel.
SpaceX’s director of mission management for Dragon Sarah Walker said that the most difficult part of the mission will be the final stage, which will push the ISS towards its final descent.
“This burn must be powerful enough to steer the entire space station while resisting the torques and forces caused by the increased atmospheric drag of the space station to ensure that it will eventually land in its intended location,” Walker said.
NASA has not yet decided where the International Space Station will sink; it will most likely happen in the South Pacific.
Earlier, it became known that the first flight of the crew of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which was supposed to last a week, has been extended until at least August. Now NASA is developing a rescue operation that will bring two astronauts who are not “stuck” back to Earth.
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