In a remarkable statement Thursday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the International Space Station should be deorbited “as soon as possible.”
This comment from Musk will surely set off a landmine in the global space community, with broad implications. And it appears to be no idle comment from Musk who, at times, indulges in deliberately provocative posts on the social media network X that he owns.
However, that does not seem to be the case here.
“It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station. It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars,” Musk wrote at midday on Thursday.
This original statement was somewhat ambiguous. Last July, NASA awarded Space X an $843 million contract to modify a Dragon spacecraft to serve as a propulsive vehicle to safely guide the aging space station into the Pacific Ocean in 2030. So in some sense, preparations are already underway to shut down the laboratory.
I asked Musk if he meant that NASA and the US government should commit to the 2030 end-of-life date, or if he wanted to accelerate the timeline for the station’s demise.
“The decision is up to the President, but my recommendation is as soon as possible. I recommend 2 years from now,” Musk replied.
In other words, the owner of SpaceX, the most powerful actor in spaceflight globally, and one of the most powerful people in the world who is presently working alongside the US president to transform the government, wants to bring the space station down in early 2027.
Myriad ramifications
The politics of this are complicated. President Trump could propose shutting down the space station, but the budget for the deorbit vehicle (which is necessary, otherwise the station might make an uncontrolled reentry over land) must be funded by Congress.
The space station has key supporters in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in whose state the orbiting laboratory is managed. Cruz has long been an advocate of the space station. Ars reached out to Cruz for a comment on Thursday, but the senator did not immediately respond.
