NASA is soliciting proposals for a new spacecraft, the USDV, to safely deorbit the International Space Station after it is retired, prioritizing flexibility and safety during the transition. To maximize value to the government and enhance competition, the procurement will allow offerors the flexibility to propose fixed-price or cost-plus-incentive-fee proposals during the design, development, test and evaluation phases. The remainder of the contract will be fixed price.
The picture shows a photo of the International Space Station taken while SpaceX's "Endeavour" manned Dragon spacecraft (CrewDragon Endeavor) was undocking from the space-facing port of the "Harmony" module on November 8, 2021, while flying around the orbiting laboratory. The orbital module was flying 263 miles above the Marshall Islands in the Pacific when this photo was taken. Image source: NASA
International Cooperation and the International Space Station
Since 1998, five space agencies (Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA and national space company "Roscosmos") have operated the International Space Station, with each agency responsible for the management and control of the hardware it provides. The space station is designed to be interdependent, operating on contributions from the entire partnership. Participating countries including the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency (ESA) have pledged to operate the space station until 2030, and Russia has pledged to operate it until at least 2028.
On November 8, 2021, SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavor took a mosaic photo of the International Space Station while flying around the International Space Station after undocking from the space-facing port of the Harmony module. Image source: NASA
Future plans and safety measures
At the end of the International Space Station program, the space station will be deorbited in a controlled manner to avoid densely populated areas. The safe deorbiting of the International Space Station is a shared responsibility among all five space agencies and is funded by partners based on the percentage of mass owned by each agency. Going forward, the United States plans to transition its operations in low Earth orbit to commercially owned and operated platforms to ensure continued access to and presence in space for research, technology development, and international cooperation.
In a years-long effort, NASA and its partners studied deorbiting requirements and previously developed an initial strategy and action plan that evaluated the use of multiple Roscosmos Progress spacecraft to support deorbiting operations. These efforts now demonstrate that new spacecraft solutions will provide greater capabilities for responsible deorbiting. To kick off the development of this new spacecraft, NASA issued a request for proposals.
USDV focuses on the last derailment activity. It will be a new spacecraft design or modification of an existing spacecraft that must function on its first flight and have sufficient redundancy and exception resilience to continue the critical deorbit burn. As with any development effort of this scale, the development, testing and certification of USDV will take several years.