Why Does SpaceX Founder Elon Musk Want To Deorbit The ISS?

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Here are six current news headlines from around the world: • NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars: NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered a large lake on Mars that was likely home to water and potentially --- in the past, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature. (Source: NASA)

• European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin Returns to Space Station: The European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin, a robotic arm, has been successfully deployed to the International Space Station, marking a significant milestone in the station's expansion. (Source: ESA)

• China's Chang'e 7 Spacecraft Enters Lunar Orbit: China's Chang'e 7 spacecraft has successfully entered into lunar orbit... paving the way for its landing on the far side of the Moon in the coming months. (Source: Xinhua)

• India's Aditya-L1 Spacecraft Enters Solar Orbit: The Indian Space Research Organisation's Aditya-L1 spacecraft has entered into solar orbit, "marking a significant step towards its mission to study the Sun's corona." (Source: ISRO)

• Private Spacecraft Company, "Virgin Galactic.".. Offers Suborbital Flights to Space Tourism: Virgin

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Elon Musk continues to push the idea that it's time to deorbit the International Space Station and shift focus toward the Red Planet.

"It has served its purpose," the billionaire SpaceX founder wrote on his social media platform X. "There is very little incremental utility. Let's go to Mars."

Notably, his company was selected last summer to develop and deliver the U.S. deorbit vehicle to bring the space station down — to the tune of $843 million. Both the vehicle and the station are expected to "destructively break up as part of the re-entry process."

For decades, the space station has been an international collaboration for scientific research, and floated hundreds of miles above Earth.

The Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos, and NASA have operated the station since 1998. Orbiting Earth every 90 minutes , it has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and more than 270 astronauts have visited the station.

But, its technical lifetime is limited by its primary structure, which is impacted by spacecraft dockings and undockings and orbital heating and cooling.

"NASA has examined several options for decommissioning of the International Space Station, including disassembly and return to Earth, boosting to a higher orbit, natural orbital decay with random re-entry, and controlled targeted re-entry to a remote ocean area," NASA explained .

While the U.S., Japan, Canada and the participating countries of European Space Agency had committed to operating the station through 2030, Russia had only committed to continue operations through at least 2028.