Posted: Sun, Jun 30, 2024, 9:54 AM ET (1354 GMT)
SpaceX won a $843 million NASA contract to build a vehicle to help deorbit the ISS. NASA said Wednesday it selected SpaceX to build the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), a spacecraft that will dock to the station near the end of its life and perform the final maneuvers needed to bring the station down over an empty region of the ocean. Neither NASA nor SpaceX disclosed details about SpaceX's design for the USDV. NASA, in a white paper released Wednesday, said that deorbit vehicle is "the safest and only viable method" of decommissioning the station at the end of its life, currently planned for around 2030.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  AP article
•  Business Insider article
•  NASA press release