 It's been hosting crews since 2009 and is expected to be retired in 2030. NASA has hired SpaceX to build a vehicle that will drag the ISS out of orbit when the time comes. SpaceX will get more than $840 million to do the job. The vehicle will latch onto the space station, which is roughly the size of a football field, and guide it out of Earth's orbit. Both will then burn up as they slam into Earth's atmosphere.