The International Space Station is set to die soon, with SpaceX contracted to deal the killing blow sometime in 2030. Now, after a test last Friday from one of the company’s Dragon rockets docked to the station, SpaceX is one step closer to killing the ISS for good.
At 12:50 PM last Friday a Dragon rocket did its first-ever “reboost” of the ISS, firing its rockets in order to add altitude to the station and keeping it afloat for a little while longer. The procedure needs to happen regularly, with the work traditionally done by rockets from Northrup Grumman or Russian outfit Roscosmos, but this marked the first time a Dragon has ever reboosted the station. Why suddenly ask SpaceX to do the work? Simple: The company needs data from pushing the ISS around in order to design a stake to plunge through the station’s heart.
The Dragon spacecraft itself won’t be what deorbits the ISS. Instead, SpaceX will build a bigger ship to knock the station down — no word yet on what fantasy name it’ll get, though I’m pushing for Dracolich. That deorbit vehicle will have triple the engines of a standard Dragon, but those engines will be the same units from SpaceX’s existing craft. Data obtained pushing the ISS around now will be relevant in building a bigger boat.
It’ll be a genuine shame to see the ISS fall from the sky, but perhaps the station will end up in a better place. If there’s a heaven for machinery, I hope the International Space Station gets to go there by 2031. It can hang out with ASIMO at that great oil bath in the sky.