BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA is looking at what will happen after the International Space Station retires.
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Leaders discussed deorbiting the station around 2030.
The ISS is a place that hundreds of people have temporarily called home.
That includes the astronauts for Boeing’s Starliner mission, who are still in the ISS.
Read: NASA selects SpaceX to develop spacecraft to deorbit International Space Station
NASA provided background on Wednesday on the vehicle it’s using for the deorbiting mission, which SpaceX will develop.
The company was selected to deliver the U.S. deorbit vehicle so the station avoids coming down in populated areas.
It will be based on the company’s Cargo Dragon, but a much larger vehicle, almost the size of a spacecraft.
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The ISS must be safe and controlled at the end of its operational life, making way for private space stations.
The South Pacific is just one potential location.
It will take some time once NASA decides it’s ready to begin the deorbiting process.
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The station will drift down for a year to a year-and-a-half.
A crew will stay on as long as possible until about six months before re-entry.
When the station is about 220 kilometers from re-entry from the U.S., the deorbit vehicle will undergo a series of re-entry burns.
This burn must be powerful enough to fly the entire space station while resisting the torks and forces caused by increasing atmospheric drag on the space station to ensure that it ultimately terminates in the intended location.
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