Elon Musk recommends deorbiting the floating laboratory by 2027 so we can go to Mars

Elon Musk has taken to his personal X account to call for the International Space Station (ISS) to be deorbited early, as it serves "very little incremental utility."

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO recommended the ISS be deorbited "2 years from now," which is ahead of the official NASA scheduled that was to deorbit the floating laboratory sometime in 2030. Notably, SpaceX was awarded a contract in 2024 that was worth close to $1 billion to power the deorbiting process, which involves SpaceX creating a deorbiting vehicle that is ready for use by 2029. However, Musk seems to want to speed that timeline up significantly.

For those who don't know, the International Space Station is used by not only the United States to conduct scientific experiments in microgravity but also its partners, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), JAXA, Japan's NASA equivalent, and others. Moreover, the ending of the ISS won't just affect government space agencies but also the private sector, as several companies have already solidified plans that involve the ISS. So, why deorbit the ISS early?

It appears Musk's goal of deorbiting the ISS early is part of the SpaceX CEO's overarching plan to put humans on the surface of Mars, and with the ISS no longer being funded, which SpaceX in itself takes advantage of with multiple billion-dollar transportation contracts, there will be plenty of money freed up to put into achieving the first human footprints on the Red Planet.

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