Good Monday morning, space friends. For a few years, I’ve been reporting when the aging International Space Station is expected to be retired and now, we know more about how NASA wants to splash down the “big city in the sky,” as Starliner commander Butch Wilmore called it.
Under a new $843 million contract, NASA is tasking SpaceX with docking a spacecraft to the station, making reentry and landing in the ocean in 2030. Exactly what the SpaceX spacecraft will do wasn’t specified.
Recommended Videos
Besides the wear and tear, another reason NASA wants to retire the space station is to transition to a commercial economy in low Earth orbit. Companies like Blue Origin and Axiom Space have plans to build their own space stations to house astronauts and private citizens by 2030.
Calling on Congress to fund NASA’s $25 billion budget request this year, administrator Bill Nelson testified America’s relationship in space with Russia could complicate those plans to bring down the International Space Station.
While other countries have committed to help run the station until 2030, for now, Russia is only committed until 2028.
“We don’t know what the president of Russia is going to do and we could be in an emergency situation that we have to get this structure that is as big as a football stadium down, and down safely,” Nelson said.
In its quarter-century of being their home in space, NASA says more than 200 astronauts from more than 20 countries have worked on more than 3,000 science experiments on the orbiting laboratory.
📧 Have any topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!