SpaceX is building a superpowered spaceship to decommission the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. The ISS, which has hosted hundreds of astronauts over the last 23 years, is nearing the end of its operational life. In June, NASA announced it would pay SpaceX up to $843 million to help scrap the ISS, and on Wednesday, both organizations shared new details about their plan.
The plan involves developing an extra-large Dragon spaceship that can push the ISS out of orbit and into a controlled descent, ultimately resulting in a fiery plunge into a remote part of the ocean, likely in 2031. SpaceX’s Dragon spaceships currently ferry NASA astronauts and cargo to and from the ISS, but this task requires significantly more power due to the ISS’s massive weight of about 925,000 pounds.
To accomplish this, SpaceX plans to modify an existing Cargo Dragon with a new high-powered trunk and supercharge it with 46 Draco engines—30 more than a regular Dragon. This “deorbit vehicle” will be approximately twice as long as a standard Dragon ship and equipped with six times the propellant, producing four times the power.
SpaceX shared an illustration of the upgraded Dragon on X (formerly Twitter). Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, noted that the most complex part of the mission would be the final burn, which must be powerful enough to guide the entire ISS toward its final descent. This burn needs to counteract the torques and forces caused by increasing atmospheric drag on the space station to ensure it reaches its intended ocean grave.
The ISS’s final destination will be in a remote part of the ocean, such as the South Pacific, although NASA has not yet selected a precise location. NASA aims to ensure the massive spacecraft lands safely in the ocean, minimizing any risk of debris hitting populated areas.
Walker expressed pride in SpaceX’s role in this mission, calling it a “wonderful full circle experience.” In 2012, Dragon became the first commercial vehicle to dock with the ISS, and if all goes according to plan, it will be the last vehicle to dock with the station. “I can’t stress enough how honored we are to be a part of that step,” Walker said.
NASA considered using three Russian Progress spacecraft for the job, but it wasn’t feasible given the ISS’s size, according to Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s ISS program. NASA and Roscosmos plan to continue using the ISS until 2030, after which both agencies will transition to new space stations. NASA envisions becoming one of many customers on private space stations in the future.