NASA has said the ISS will continue to operate for several years, even after it is scheduled to be replaced in the 2030s. SpaceX’s new return vehicle will bring the ISS back into Earth’s atmosphere just 12 to 18 months after leaving its operational orbit. The crew will remain on board for as long as possible to keep the station operational.

SpaceX was selected by NASA last month to develop a lander for the American segments of the ISS. The company will receive approximately $843 million for development, excluding start-up costs. The “Space Tractor” will be based on the design of the Dragon spacecraft, which has delivered cargo to the ISS since 2012 and has been delivering crew to the station since 2020.

The vehicle will feature an advanced cargo bay that includes additional fuel tanks, engines, avionics, power generation systems and other mission-specific components. The assembly-level design was designed specifically for the mission, but the company intentionally used pre-existing components that NASA is familiar with and that SpaceX has extensive experience building and operating, said Sarah Walker, SpaceX Dragon mission management director.

Today, SpaceX dominates ISS operations, owning much of the supply chain for space launches. The company launches both crew and cargo, is funded by NASA under its Starship contract to land astronauts on the moon, launches lucrative satellite missions funded by the U.S. military and government, and launches its own broadband Starlink satellites.

SpaceX’s approach to developing a device that would lift the ISS out of Earth orbit was praised in an official source selection document published on the government’s procurement website. The document says the project significantly increases the likelihood of producing a highly reliable design, minimizes new development and testing, and reduces the government’s risk of late delivery, greatly increasing the potential for successful contract execution.

SpaceX’s main competitor, Northrop Grumman, which currently launches cargo missions to the ISS, had a higher total project cost. According to NASA, it is “particularly troubling” that the NG Space Tug idea may not work at certain angles between the ISS’s orbit and the imaginary line connecting the Sun and Earth. “Due to this vulnerability, NASA is faced with a choice between a potentially lengthy and expensive redesign of the NG system, which would give NASA greater flexibility in planning ISS deorbit operations, or a launch that would limit NASA’s planned deorbit schedule,” the document emphasized.

While most of the ISS consortium is currently committed to operating until 2030, Russia says it will remain operational until at least 2028.

NASA officials have emphasized that the ISS end date depends on when new commercial stations the agency is funding are ready. “We want the commercial stations to stay on a schedule, and when they’re ready to launch, the ISS will release them from orbit,” said Steve Stich, commercial crew program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

There are also financial and political reasons on the U.S. side to keep the experiments going, at least for as long as possible. Congress has warned that China’s Tiangong space station could capture much of the lucrative low-Earth orbit market if the U.S. retires the ISS early. NASA is prohibited from making bilateral agreements or coordinating with China under a 2011 congressional directive known as the Wolf Amendment.

Many companies are now establishing commercial outposts. Axiom Space plans to deploy modules to the ISS and then separate them into a separate Axiom Station. Orbital Reef includes Amazon, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Sierra Space; Starlab, led by Voyager Space, includes Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman; and Vast Space plans to launch the first Haven-1 module in 2025, keeping the ISS operational for several more years.