A satellite tv for pc picture exhibits an outline of the Worldwide House Station with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, June 7, 2024.Maxar Applied sciences | By way of ReutersNASA could have a spacecraft from Elon Musk’s SpaceX information the Worldwide House Station’s destruction later this decade, the company introduced Wednesday.The Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration awarded an $843 million contract to SpaceX to construct the so-called “U.S. Deorbit Automobile.” The spacecraft will probably be designed to information the football-field-sized analysis laboratory again into the Earth’s ambiance after retiring in 2030.The SpaceX-built car will successfully destroy the ISS by pushing the station into reentry from orbit.”It’s essential to arrange for the protected and accountable deorbit of the Worldwide House Station in a managed method,” NASA mentioned in a press launch, with the U.S. Deorbit Automobile wanted to “guarantee avoidance of danger to populated areas.”SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule “Endeavour” seen from the Worldwide House Station on Might 2, 2024.NASANASA didn’t specify whether or not SpaceX’s design for the U.S. Deorbit Automobile will probably be based mostly on one of many firm’s present spacecraft, equivalent to its Dragon capsules. SpaceX and NASA didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon the design.The U.S. – together with 4 worldwide associate companies representing Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan – has been making ready for the eventual finish of the ISS, which has been crewed since 2000. The ISS, primarily created as a crewed analysis laboratory, has seen greater than 3,300 experiments performed in microgravity. That features analysis not doable on Earth equivalent to medical sciences and know-how demonstrations.However the ISS is growing older, with NASA and its lead associate Roscosmos, unable to unravel a worsening downside of microscopic leaks on the station.NASA is planning to interchange the ISS via personal area stations and helps fund U.S. firms’ growth via the Business LEO Locations (CLD) program.The ISS totaled about $150 billion to develop and construct and prices NASA about $4 billion every year to function, so the company sees privately constructed area stations as a option to substitute the ISS at a fraction of the associated fee.