The International Space Station (ISS) has been home to hundreds of astronauts for the past 23 years, but its days are numbered. In June, NASA announced it would pay Elon Musk's SpaceX company up to $843 million to help decommission the station. NASA and SpaceX have shared new details about their plan, which includes building a super-large Dragon spacecraft capable of pushing the ISS out of orbit and crashing it into a distant ocean grave, possibly in 2031, Business Insider reports, as quoted by Focus.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft currently transports astronauts and cargo for NASA to and from the ISS. However, the astronauts and cargo are significantly lighter compared to the ISS.
That's why SpaceX is considering equipping one of its Dragon ships for this task. They plan to modify the existing Cargo Dragon with a new powerful trunk and equip it with 46 Draco engines, 30 more engines than the standard ship.
The resulting ship will be roughly twice as long as a conventional Dragon, carry six times as much fuel and produce four times as much power.
Sarah Walker, director of SpaceX's Dragon mission management, points out that the most difficult part of the mission will be the final stage, which will propel the ISS toward its final descent.
The final destination of the ISS will be in a remote part of the ocean, such as the Pacific Ocean, but NASA has not yet chosen the exact location.