NEW YORK, August 2. /TASS/. Deorbiting of the International Space Station (ISS) requires a collaborative effort of all the partners, particularly Russia and the United States, deputy head of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kenneth Bowersox said.
"Space station was meant to be operated jointly. It requires the work of all the partners, Russia and America especially, have to be able to cooperate for the deorbit," he said at the press conference in conclusion of the launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.
The space station team "is working together to come up with that final plan where we use Russian elements and American elements," to reduce the risk for the people when the ISS will be deorbited to the ocean, Bowersox noted.
"Our current plan is to have the Russian segment do attitude control and the US DV [deorbiting vehicle - TASS] do the actual thrusting and boost that gives us additional layers of redundancy," ISS Manager in NASA Dana Weigel said. "P art of what Roscosmos is working on right now is fuel delivery," she added.
The fuel reserves required for ISS deorbiting will reach the desired level in early 2028, Weigel said. "We'll probably start drifting down in mid-2028. We got to make sure we have the fuel there and everyone's ready to go. And then the US DV will arrive mid-2029, so that’s sort of the sequence of events," she noted.
The ISS is on the orbit since 1998. Participants in the project are Russia, Canada, the US, Japan and ten member-states of the European Space Agency.