NASA announced today that "SpaceX has been selected to develop and deliver the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle that will provide the capability to deorbit the space station and ensure avoidance of risk to populated areas."
What will its design be?
I won't be betting in this market, since some of the questions have subjective elements.
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The design was just announced. Dragon-based with 46 Draco engines and extra prop. Docked to Node 2 forward port. Will be launched as a full 30 ton vehicle by a launch vehicle TBD later (so no orbital refueling)
@DanHomerick do you want to resolve now that the design is certain? Otherwise the mana will be stuck for years and years.
I don't think they've said anything about orbit raising first, don't think they're planning that tbh.
Eric Berger: "Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for NASA’s International Space Station Program, confirms that the US Deorbit Vehicle will be based on "Dragon heritage" hardware. It will involve modifications of the trunk."
https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1806762777333076064
Ars Technica / Eric Berger has published an article on the topic. In it, he speculates that a "Dragon XL" will be used, which is a spacecraft designed to support the Lunar Gateway.
I think it predates SpaceX's proposal, but this 6-page long deorbit analysis summary trom NASA gives a good overview of what they're not going to do, and why.
Some premptive clarifications:
To be "related to" an existing spacecraft refers to the two being similar enough that the deobit tug could fairly be called a varient. Just reusing the same engine or avionics package wouldn't be sufficient.
For main engine / thruster markets, an example of main engine would be a Merlin or Raptor engine, as compared to a Super Draco. The questions are about providing a significant fraction of the deltaV required for deorbit, not just minor off-axis corrections.