NASA has awarded SpaceX a contract worth up to $843 million to orchestrate the controlled destruction of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of its operational life. The ambitious mission, slated for around 2031, will see SpaceX develop a custom deorbit vehicle to guide the massive structure through Earth's atmosphere and into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo.

The ISS, weighing over 925,000 pounds and spanning an area the size of a football field, has been continuously inhabited since November 2000. Its planned demise presents a monumental engineering challenge. SpaceX's vehicle will need to attach to the station, lower its orbit, and precisely control its descent to ensure that any debris falls harmlessly into the ocean. This controlled deorbit is crucial to prevent the potential catastrophic risks associated with an uncontrolled reentry of such a large structure.

The deorbiting process is expected to begin about a year before the final plunge, with the ISS gradually lowering its altitude. After the last crew departs, SpaceX's vehicle will take control, guiding the station through the atmosphere in a carefully choreographed maneuver. The fiery spectacle of the ISS's reentry is likely to be visible across a wide swath of the southern Pacific.

While some have proposed alternative fates for the ISS, such as boosting it to a higher orbit or preserving parts in museums, NASA determined that a controlled destruction is the most practical and safest option. The mission underscores SpaceX's growing role in critical space operations and sets the stage for the next era of commercial space stations.

(Sources: Scientific American by Meghan Bartels, Smithsonian Magazine by Christian Thorsberg)