Elon Musk continues to push the idea that it’s time to deorbit the International Space Station and shift focus toward the Red Planet.
“It has served its purpose,” the billionaire SpaceX founder wrote on his social media platform X. “There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars.”
When asked if he was suggested that the orbiting laboratory be deorbited prior to the targeted 2030 date, the Department of Government Efficiency “consultant” said that the decision is up to President Donald Trump. However, he has a recommendation.
“I recommend two years from now,” he noted.
Notably, his company was selected last summer to develop and deliver the U.S. deorbit vehicle to bring the space station down — to the tune of $843 million. Both the vehicle and the station are expected to “destructively break up as part of the re-entry process.”
Here is what we know about why Musk has the International Space Station in his sights:
What is the International Space Station?
For decades, the space station has been an international collaboration for scientific research, and floated hundreds of miles above Earth.
The Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, and NASA have operated the station since 1998. Orbiting Earth every 90 minutes, it has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and more than 270 astronauts have visited the station.
But, its technical lifetime is limited by its primary structure, which is impacted by spacecraft dockings and undockings and orbital heating and cooling.
“NASA has examined several options for decommissioning of the International Space Station, including disassembly and return to Earth, boosting to a higher orbit, natural orbital decay with random re-entry, and controlled targeted re-entry to a remote ocean area,” NASA explained.
While the U.S., Japan, Canada and the participating countries of European Space Agency had committed to operating the station through 2030, Russia had only committed to continue operations through at least 2028.
“The safe deorbit of the International Space Station is the responsibility of all five space agencies,” NASA said last June.
While aboard the space station, astronauts have conducted thousands of experiments that aren’t possible on Earth.
In many ways, the space station helped lead to the formation of SpaceX and the commercial space agency, which NASA has supported.
“[The station] is the cornerstone of space commerce, from commercial crew and cargo partnerships to commercial research and national lab research, and lessons learned aboard International Space Station are helping to pass the torch to future commercial stations,” NASA said.
What does the future hold for the station?
Parts of the space station, which covers an area about the size of a football field, will be preserved.
To decommission the station, NASA says that it will combine a natural and gradual decrease in altitude with a re-entry maneuver to control the size of the debris from the space station and send it down into an uninhabited region of the ocean.
“Due to the high propellant requirement of this final maneuver, the Earth’s natural atmospheric drag will be used as much as possible to lower [the] station’s altitude while setting up deorbit. Once all crew have safely returned to Earth, and after performing small maneuvers to line up the final target ground track and debris footprint over an uninhabited region of the ocean, space station operators will command a large re-entry burn, providing the final push to ensure safe atmospheric entry into the target footprint,” the agency said.
The debris is expected to settle to the ocean floor and NASA has said no substantial long-term environmental impacts would be expected.
What has Musk has said about the station?
Before recently, Musk has not paid much attention to the space station.
It’s notable that these remarks come on the heels of a testy exchange with Expedition 70 commander and European astronaut Andreas Mogensen.
The pair were discussing the extended stays of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on social media and starting hurling insults at each other.
“You are fully r*******,” Musk wrote. “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons. Idiot.”
However, Mogensen did not take the billionaire’s anger-fueled reply lying down.
First, he said he had long admired what Musk had accomplished, especially and SpaceX and Tesla.
“You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September,” Mogensen said
Why does Musk want to remove it from orbit?
Musk says that the space station has served its purpose. However, the Tesla co-founder has another priority 140 million miles away.
He aims to free up the agency to tackle Mars. He’s also said that focusing on the moon is a “distraction.” However, the Artemis program taking astronauts back to the lunar surface is supposed to serve as a stepping stone to future missions to Mars.
Heading to Mars is also something that President Donald Trump has noted will be a priority.
