NASA awards SpaceX $843 million contract to destroy the International Space Station

NASA is preparing to destroy the International Space Station (ISS), awarding SpaceX an $843 million contract to push the station safely out of orbit and back to Earth.

According to the space agency's plans, SpaceX's specially designed deorbit vehicle will drag the football field-size ISS back to Earth sometime after the end of its operational life in 2030. The ISS will smash into our planet's atmosphere at a speed of more than 17,000 mph (27,500 km/h) before landing in a crashdown spot in the ocean. 

Deorbiting the space station "supports NASA's plans for future commercial destinations and allows for the continued use of space near Earth," Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate, said in a statement. 

The floating laboratory's first parts were launched in 1998, and it has been occupied by astronauts from the U.S., Japan, Russia, Canada and Europe since 2000, who have completed more than 3,300 scientific experiments in a close orbit above Earth.

But the space station is showing its age: technical faults and leaks continue to cause issues for crews, and the contracts between the five participating national space agencies — which marked an era of global cooperation in space following the end of the Cold War — will end by 2030.

Related: What is Point Nemo, the remote, watery satellite graveyard where the ISS will go to die?

But it's still unclear exactly when the space station will be brought crashing back to Earth. The 2030 end date is in NASA's budget, but the space agency is committed to operations throughout 2030.