SpaceX Given Contract to Destroy Space Station
SpaceX Given Contract to Destroy Space Station
02:00
Jul 3, 2024 9:06 PM
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NASA has given SpaceX an $843 million contract to build the vehicle that will help to destroy the International Space Station (ISS). Space X, a company that's controlled by Elon Musk, will build the vehicle but the mission will be led by NASA. The ISS was launched in 1998 and it's likely that it will have to be removed from space in the next few years. The station is operated by space agencies from the US, Europe, Japan, Canada and Russia. All the countries involved have said they'll operate the station until 2030 except Russia, which has said it will operate it until 2028. Teams of astronauts have been living in the space station since 2000. During that time, they have done more than 3,300 experiments in space. It's expected that the SpaceX vehicle will pull the ISS through space before landing it in the sea. Both are likely to break apart as they re-enter Earth's atmosphere. NASA said that it will be focusing on "commercially owned space destinations closer to home" as life on the ISS comes to an end. The contract is seen as another vote of confidence for the company that Musk founded in 2002. But experts say it won't be easy bringing such a large space station back to Earth safely. Meghan Bartels from Scientific American said it will be a "delicate" challenge. She said it took 42 different launches to send the ISS into space, where it was put together in orbit. She added: "The orbiting laboratory contains about as much internal space as a six-bedroom house spread over an area the size of a football field," and that it weighs almost as much as three blue whales. It's not yet known what the vehicle will look like or exactly when the mission will take place.
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