Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Samuel Corum
Topics: Space, Elon Musk, NASA, International Space Station, Space X, Technology
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Space, Elon Musk, NASA, International Space Station, Space X, Technology
Elon Musk's plans to destroy the International Space Station (ISS) might happen sooner than you'd expected.
In 2024, Musk bagged a whopping $838 million NASA contract to destroy the research center.
The ISS has been in orbit for over two decades and is nearing the end of its operation lifespan.
With this in mind, NASA has hired SpaceX to dismantle the 925,000-pound structure.
Advert
As of June last year, engineers said the ISS was still structurally sound, but urged that plans need to be made about its eventual demise.
In regards to why it's being destroyed instead of simply being left in space, there are fears that the ISS could come crashing back down to Earth.
While the whole of the ISS wouldn't survive re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and would burn and break up, NASA says that it would also 'vaporize into fragments of various sizes', and it's these fragments that could come hurtling down on populated places.
However, with the help of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, a more controlled re-entry will take place, with the capsule helping ensure that the fragments of the ISS crash into the South Pacific Ocean, instead of on towns and cities.
As it stands, the ISS is scheduled to retire in 2030.
NASA said in a release last year: "As the agency transitions to commercially owned space destinations closer to home, it is crucial to prepare for the safe and responsible deorbit of the International Space Station in a controlled manner after the end of its operational life in 2030."
While NASA outlined its timeline months ago, Musk has now suggested that it could be done sooner.
Giving an update on the plans, he wrote on Twitter yesterday (February 20): "It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station.
"It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars."
Someone went on to ask the Tesla CEO if this means that the ISS will be de-orbited before 2030, to which the multibillionaire replied: "The decision is up to the President, but my recommendation is as soon as possible. I recommend 2 years from now."
Regarding why Musk wants it done sooner, as per his tweet, it's believed that he wants America to focus its attention on landing on Mars - the planet that the tech mogul supposedly wants to die on.
During a recent joint Fox News interview with Donald Trump, he said: "[I'm going to Mars] at some point. They ask me, 'Do you want to die on Mars?' and I say, 'Yes but not on impact'."
I mean, it wouldn't be worth the seven to ten month-long journey to the Red Planet to die immediately, would it?