Why’s NASA Paying SpaceX Almost A Billion Dollars to Destroy their Space Station?
So I want to clear up this viral news story. Cuz NASA will still oversee the mission. SpaceX is just constructing the spacecraft that will deorbit the station. Which actually has a genius design.
You see, the spacecraft will help the ISS go under phased disintegration. So it will help detach smaller parts like the solar arrays first. These parts will vaporise upon re-entry. But the larger parts will likely survive. So the spacecraft would have to guide the crash landing. Which is happening for a good reason.
The station is getting old, and doing maintenance in space is expensive. After the crash, science can focus on deep space, and we can make room for commercial space stations. That’s
