NASA To Spend Upto $1 Bn On Space Station Deorbit Module

The American space agency NASA is all set to invest nearly 1 billion USD, in a tug of deorbiting the international space station, according to a media report. 

It adds by the end of the decade the proposal will get completed and will provide redundancy for the safe disposal of the station.

Meanwhile, the space agency has also released the fiscal year 2024 budget proposal that suggests a 7.1 per cent increase from the current year, a rough pace with inflation.

According to reports, the biggest new initiative in the budget is the ISS deorbit tug, which would be used in performing the final lowering of the station’s orbit ensuring its re-enters over the South Pacific.

NASA first highlighted its plans for the tug last year in August and offered few specifics about the vehicle in the budget request.

Commenting on the matter Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said, the investment by NASA is for the tug and is likely to give a healthy start for the project.

While budget documents did not mention a spending profile for the project, Lueders said the agency came up with a cost estimate of about USD one billion.

She added, the exact amount will depend on what proposals the agency receives from the industry from an upcoming request for proposals (RFP).

Our goal is to go out with an RFP, she said emphasising, “We are hoping to get a better price than that”.

While reports on the other side also confirm NASA’s earlier plan to use cargo spacecraft, particularly Russia’s Progress, to deorbit the station.