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A14 SCIENCE
Friday 19 July 2024
How NASA and SpaceX will bring down the space station when it’s retired

By MARCIA DUNN kind that carries supplies and
AP Aerospace Writer astronauts to the space sta-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) tion but with a much bigger
— SpaceX will use a powerful, trunk housing a record 46 en-
souped-up capsule to shove gines and more than 35,000
the International Space Sta- pounds (16,000 kilograms) of
tion out of orbit once time is fuel. SpaceX’s Sarah Walker
up for the sprawling lab. said the challenge will be
NASA and Elon Musk’s com- creating a spacecraft pow-
pany on Wednesday out- erful enough to guide the
lined the plan to burn the space station while resisting
space station up on reentry the tugs and forces from in-
and plunge what’s left into creased atmospheric drag
the ocean, ideally at the be- during final descent.
ginning of 2031 when it hits This spacecraft will require an
the 32-year mark. The space especially powerful rocket
agency rejected other op- just to get to orbit, according
tions, like taking the station to NASA. The capsule would
apart and bringing every- be launched 1 1/2 years be-
thing home or handing the fore the station’s planned
keys to someone else. demise. Astronauts still would
NASA gave SpaceX a $843 This photo provided by NASA, taken from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour, shows the be aboard as it’s gradually
million contract to bring International Space Station, Nov. 8, 2021, flying more than 250 miles above the Nile Delta in Egypt. lowered. Six months before
down the station the big- Associated Press the station’s destruction, the
gest structure ever built off crew would abandon ship
the planet. then, with NASA serving as and any such effort would reentry over a remote sec- and return home. Once the
Here’s a rundown on the one of many customers. That be expensive and also risky tion of the South Pacific or station is down to about 137
work and challenges ahead: strategy already in place to the astronauts who would possibly the Indian Ocean, miles (220 kilometers), the
Why get rid of the space for station cargo and crew handle the disassembly. Be- so that means launching a Dragon would bring it down
station? deliveries will free NASA up sides, there’s no spacecraft spacecraft that will dock to four days later. Has this been
The space station is already is to focus on moon and Mars as big as NASA’s old shuttles the station and steer it to- done before? NASA’s first
showing signs of age. Russia travel. NASA could decide to to bring everything down. ward a watery grave. NASA space station, Skylab, came
and the U.S. launched the first extend the station’s life, too, if Another option would be to expects some denser pieces crashing down in 1979, with
pieces in late 1998, and as- no commercial outposts are boost the empty station to a to survive, ranging in size from debris raining down onto Aus-
tronauts moved in two years up there yet. The aim is to higher, more stable orbit. But a microwave oven to a se- tralia and the surrounding Pa-
later. Europe and Japan have an overlap so scientific that, too, was dismissed given dan, in a narrow debris field cific. The space agency had
added their own segments, research is not interrupted. the logistical issues and the 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) hoped one of the first space
and Canada provided robot- Why not bring it back to increased risk of space junk. long. NASA and its partners shuttle crews could attach
ic arms. By the time NASA’s Earth? How will it be brought down? considered using three Rus- a rocket to control Skylab’s
shuttles retired in 2011, the NASA considered disman- Visiting spacecraft periodi- sian supply ships for the job, descent or boost its orbit. But
station had grown to the size tling the space station and cally boost the space station but a more robust craft was the shuttle wasn’t ready by
of a football field, with a mass hauling the pieces back to so it remains in an orbit ap- needed. The call went out to then, with its first flight not
of nearly 1 million pounds Earth, or letting private com- proximately 260 miles (420 industry and, in June, SpaceX until 1981. Ground control-
(430,000 kilograms). NASA panies salvage the parts for kilometers) high. Otherwise, won the contract for a de- lers managed to send Skylab
figures the station will last until their own planned outposts. it would keep getting lower orbit vehicle. What will the into a slow tumble, aiming
at least 2030. The goal is for But the station was never and lower until it plunged, deorbit spacecraft look like? for the Indian Ocean. But
private companies to launch intended to be taken apart uncontrolled, from orbit. SpaceX plans to use an or- some pieces also landed in
their own space stations by in orbit, according to NASA, NASA wants to ensure a safe dinary Dragon capsule the Western Australia.q

Boeing is closer to understanding thruster failures on its first

astronaut flight with latest test

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing is closer to understanding what went wrong with
its astronaut capsule in orbit, now that testing is complete on a spare thruster here on
Earth.
The Starliner capsule has been docked at the International Space Station since June
6. It should have returned with its NASA test pilots by mid-June, but thruster failures and
helium leaks prompted NASA and Boeing to extend its stay.
Officials said Thursday there’s still no return date for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni
Williams. Engineers will first disassemble the thruster that was test-fired in New Mexico
over the past couple of weeks. Then they’ll analyze the data before clearing Starliner
for the trip home.
“We collected an incredible amount of data on the thruster that could help us better
In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test understand what is going on in flight,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager
astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, center, pose with Steve Stich said in a statement.
Expedition 71 Flight Engineers Mike Barratt, left, and Tracy The testing managed to replicate the thruster conditions up until the capsule’s docking
Dyson, aboard the International Space Station’s Quest airlock at the space station, as well as what the thrusters will experience between undocking
on June 24, 2024. and descent, according to NASA.
Associated Press This is the Starliner’s first test flight with a crew aboard.q