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SpaceX <\/a> to, basically, crash the International Space Station (ISS) into the sea. It\u2019s part of a NASA program to safely deorbit the ISS within the next ten years.<\/p>\n The ISS has been continuously operating since 1998<\/a> and, like all things, has been aging. The space station is due to end its orbital tenure in or around 2030. However, NASA doesn\u2019t want the whole thing just careening into Earth\u2019s atmosphere, throwing dangerous junk everywhere like season two of Breaking Bad<\/em>. The agency wants a nice and controlled re-entry. That\u2019s where SpaceX comes in.<\/p>\n According to the terms of the contract, SpaceX will develop a spacecraft called the \u201cUS Deorbit Vehicle\u201d to safely bring the ISS back to Earth without any undue risk to population centers. SpaceX\u2019s rocket will guide it into the Pacific Ocean, where it can bother a bunch of fish and not humans.<\/p>\n The ISS isn\u2019t heading to just any part of the Pacific Ocean. It\u2019s going to the spookily-namd \u201cspacecraft cemetery,\u201d which is an uninhabited area between New Zealand and South America that\u2019s absolutely littered with the remains of space stuff. All told, nearly 300 spacefaring vehicles have been laid to rest in this section of the ocean, including capsules, cargo craft, rockets and more. Many of these ships were actually used to reach the ISS, so this will be a homecoming, of a sort.<\/p>\n The project won\u2019t be easy for SpaceX. The ISS is nearly a million pounds and is too massive to burn up upon re-entry. The company\u2019s deorbiting vehicle is expected to take several years to both develop and test. The ISS will undergo a phased disintegration, meaning that the process should unfold in three stages. The rocket will first guide the solar arrays and radiators to the sea, followed by the individual modules and, finally, the primary structure, typically called the truss.<\/p>\n \u201cSelecting a US Deorbit Vehicle for the International Space Station will help NASA and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible transition in low Earth orbit at the end of station operations,\u201d said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.<\/p>\n The ISS is the largest structure ever built in space and was a collaborative effort between the US, Europe, Japan, Canada and Russia. The US and its partners promise to maintain operations right to the end, but Russia\u2019s commitment finishes in 2028. The space station costs around $3.1 billion per year to run. It is hoped that the private space industry will pick up the slack here, constructing orbiting stations that astronauts can use on a pay-per-visit basis.<\/p>\n To that end, plenty of private organizations have previewed their own space stations. Vast and SpaceX <\/a> and Blue Origin has a <\/a> preparing for launch toward the latter part of the decade. Voyager, Lockheed Martin and Nanoracks don’t expect to <\/a> until at least 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n