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Summary
Elon Musk has called for the International Space Station (ISS) to be deorbited “as soon as possible,” suggesting a two-year timeline instead of NASA’s planned 2030 retirement.
His statement has sparked political backlash, particularly from Sen. Ted Cruz, who supports the ISS. NASA and international partners prefer keeping the ISS operational.
Musk’s push appears tied to redirecting NASA funding toward Mars exploration, potentially challenging plans for private space stations.
This move could further centralize US space efforts around SpaceX, impacting commercial space competition.
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I mean, it’s not just the US that provides funding for that or contributed components. Russia, various European countries, Japan and Canada, I believe, all have some level of funding.
kagis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station_programme
The ISS has been described as the most expensive single item ever constructed.[93] As of 2010, the total cost was US$150 billion. This includes NASA’s budget of $58.7 billion ($89.73 billion in 2021 dollars) for the station from 1985 to 2015, Russia’s $12 billion, Europe’s $5 billion, Japan’s $5 billion, Canada’s $2 billion, and the cost of 36 shuttle flights to build the station, estimated at $1.4 billion each, or $50.4 billion in total.
Now, granted, Russia had already been talking about killing their support, maybe pulling their modules off to start a new space station for some time, so they’re probably more than fine with that.
As of 2010, the total cost was US$150 billion.
Wow, Elon bought twitter at a third the cost. What an excellent deal he got. /s
if ~ $44b was the cost to acquire the u.s., and its ~ 25% of the global economy (un estimate based on gdp), he could buy all the rest, complete the set, and still have a chunk of change left over.
and its ~ 25% of the global economy (un estimate based on gdp),
The world economy is far larger than that. It’ll be something like $100 trillion, IIRC, as the US is currently about a quarter of it and has a GDP somewhere like $20 or $30 trillion.
kagis
The US GDP is $29.168 trillion for 2024.
So, this is gonna be for 2024, and so it won’t include inflation from 2010:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_economy
That says $110 trillion for the world for 2024.
As seen in the Ars comments, the Ars article is missing a bit of context.
Musk got into a tweet war with the commander of the space station over whether Suni and Butch’s extended stay on the ISS was political. Musk eventually called him a mentally challenged idiot and then followed that up with a call for the ISS to be deorbited ASAP.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/elon-musk-iss-deorbit-00205268
He didn’t call him “mentally challenged idiot” he fully called him “retarded”.
I recommend that Elon Musk be deorbited ASAP
And by “deorbited” I mean “take away his Ketamine”.
I recommend that he is orbited. And by that I mean orbited.
