NASA contracts for a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station
NASA awarded SpaceX a contract to develop the United States Deorbit Vehicle, the spacecraft that will perform the controlled re-entry of the station at the end of its operational life. The award turns the station's retirement from a policy statement into a procurement with a schedule, and it puts a date on the disappearance of the only microgravity research platform commercially available — which is the deadline every commercial station and every in-space manufacturing business is now working against.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- International Space Station · space station · not located
- Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) · company · not located
- In-space manufacturing · concept · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
NASA award for the United States Deorbit Vehicle
Records that NASA selected SpaceX to develop the vehicle that will perform the controlled deorbit of the International Space Station. V55 verification basis: the announcement was not retrieved in this session; the contract value is not quoted here for that reason.
NASA · 2024-06 · Partly verified
NASA contract award announcement for the US Deorbit Vehicle, June 2024
International Space Station Transition Report
Sets out the plan to operate the International Space Station to 2030, to transition low-Earth-orbit human spaceflight to commercially owned destinations, and to conduct a controlled deorbit at end of life. V55 verification basis: nasa.gov was not retrievable in this session; the report's publication year is not stated here because it was not confirmed.
NASA · Partly verified
NASA, International Space Station Transition Report, report to the United States Congress
Recorded on International Space Station
- The first paying private visitor reaches the International Space Station
- A Falcon 9 first stage lands after an orbital launch
- The first sixty Starlink satellites are deployed
- A Russian anti-satellite test destroys Cosmos 1408
- The first commercial manufacturing product returns from orbit
- NASA contracts for a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station
- International Space Station operations are planned to end
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The first commercial manufacturing product returns from orbit · 2024-02
- International Space Station operations are planned to end · 2030 (planned)
- A Russian anti-satellite test destroys Cosmos 1408 · 2021-11-15
- The first sixty Starlink satellites are deployed · 2019-05-24
- A Falcon 9 first stage lands after an orbital launch · 2015-12-21
- The first paying private visitor reaches the International Space Station · 2001-04-28