Люди во время встречи первого восхода солнца Нового 2023 года в Сеуле  - Sputnik International, 1920, 21.04.2023
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NASA Fields Request for ‘Space Tug’ Designs for Deorbiting ISS in 2030

© Sputnik ScreenshotThe second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket burns up during reentry over the US Pacific Northwest on March 25, 2021
The second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket burns up during reentry over the US Pacific Northwest on March 25, 2021 - Sputnik International, 1920, 26.09.2023
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After discussing a variety of alternative plans, the US space agency NASA has settled on a controlled deorbit of the International Space Station (ISS), a multi-country project that has yielded the largest-ever man-made satellite of the Earth.
NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center has put out a request for designs for a US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), previously referred to as a “space tug,” to trigger and control the ISS’ final spiral into Earth’s atmosphere when the space station is decommissioned in 2030.
“The USDV shall rendezvous and dock with the ISS as well as perform ISS attitude control, ISS translational maneuvers, and the final ISS orbit shaping and reentry burns,” NASA explained in the notice.
The space flight agency will hold a Virtual Pre-Proposal Conference about the request on October 3 and proposals are due by November 17, the notice also said. The space vehicle is expected to take years to test and certify.
© AP Photo In this photo provided by NASA, backdropped against clouds over Earth, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two orbital spacecraft accomplish their relative separation on March 7, 2011
 In this photo provided by NASA, backdropped against clouds over Earth, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two orbital spacecraft accomplish their relative separation on March 7, 2011 - Sputnik International, 1920, 26.09.2023
In this photo provided by NASA, backdropped against clouds over Earth, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two orbital spacecraft accomplish their relative separation on March 7, 2011
According to a plan put forward last year, the spacecraft would be launched just days before the ISS was to plunge into the sea, as its orbit decays below 140 miles altitude. NASA noted in a September 20 blog post that Russia’s Progress cargo vehicles, which are sometimes used to give the ISS’ orbit a boost upward, would not be up to the task of bringing the whole station down in a controlled way, which had been a previous deorbiting plan.

Uncontrolled reentry of space debris can result in dangers to the Earthlings below, if it fails to completely burn up in the atmosphere. Thus, it is common for a more controlled descent to be used, to direct the debris toward the South Pacific, the planet’s largest stretch of uninhabited surface area.

NASA releases close-up image of asteroid Bennu, which was captured on June 13, 2019, after Orbital B Insertion. - Sputnik International, 1920, 24.09.2023
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This past spring, NASA requested $180 million in its fiscal year 2024 budget for the USDV contract, but budget feuds on Capitol Hill resulted in major cuts to the space agency’s funds for FY2024, which begins on Sunday. The vehicle is not mentioned in NASA’s 2024 budget estimates released last month, although plans for deorbiting the ISS are.

The ISS is the largest space structure ever built by humans and is maintained by a consortium of five space agencies from the US, Russia, European Union, Japan, and Canada. All but the lattermost have contributed modules to the station over the past 24 years, which have been used for science experiments, space observation, living quarters, and storage, among other things.

All but Russia’s Roscosmos have agreed to keep the space station going until 2030, although Roscosmos is committed until 2028.

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