By: Jordan Buck, 2024-07-21
SpaceX is developing the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) based on its Dragon capsule, with an upgraded trunk section and more Draco thrusters for deorbiting the International Space Station – ISS. NASA will own the USDV after delivery from SpaceX and will facilitate the launch of the vehicle. It will need to be launched on a larger rocket class than a normal Dragon capsule due to its mass, which is launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After launch, NASA will operate and control the USDV to engage docking procedures to the ISS. The controller’s plan is to allow for natural decay until 330 kilometers in altitude, at which point all astronauts will need to have left. After 6 more months, the USDV will be the instrument NASA uses to initiate the final controlled descent of the station into burning up the atmosphere. NASA estimates that pieces from the ISS that will survive reentry will be between a microwave and a sedan size. They expect all these pieces to splash down in a controlled manner over a chosen portion of the ocean.
Cybersecurity
From a cybersecurity perspective, the USDV needs to be secure against threat actors and protected against a takeover attack. Potentially, if the Dragon capsule also interfaces using the international standard docking adapter, then there are data connections as well. This would open the attack surface to any system on the ISS network that is capable of interfacing with the docked spacecraft. The implications of gaining control over the USDV would be severe. Since the USDV is purportedly able to control the rough landing area of the ISS debris into a portion of the ocean, this could also be used to target other more populated areas. While the precision of raining large chunks of orbital debris from atmospheric decay is less sniper and more shotgun, deliberately targeting a populated area instead of open ocean is still a threat that needs to be considered.