The International Space Station (ISS) has been in orbit for over 26 years, housing astronauts at an altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. But even at that distance, the space station can\u2019t escape the drag of Earth\u2019s atmosphere as oxygen molecules and other gases collide with it, causing it to lose altitude over time.<\/p>\n
For the ISS to retain its status in orbit, NASA and its partners perform the occasional reboost maneuver. This is typically done using the space station\u2019s own thrusters (which are tiny and relatively weak) or with Russia\u2019s Progress spacecraft and Northrop Grumman\u2019s Cygnus. For the first time, however, and starting in September, NASA will use SpaceX\u2019s Dragon vehicle to help sustain the space station\u2019s orbital altitude.<\/p>\n
A boost kit in the trunk <\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s Dragon launched<\/a> to the ISS on Sunday at 2:45 a.m. ET, carrying more than 5,000 pounds of supplies to the orbiting lab. The otherwise routine commercial resupply mission carried a little something extra this time around, a propellant system tucked inside Dragon\u2019s trunk for a reboost demonstration.<\/p>\n Dragon\u2019s boost kit will be used to maintain the altitude of the ISS starting in September through a series of burns planned throughout the fall, nudging the massive space station a little higher in its orbit.<\/p>\n The SpaceX spacecraft, while docked to the station, will use a propellant system that\u2019s independent from the one used to fuel its own engines. Instead, the boost kit fuels two Draco engines in the spacecraft\u2019s trunk using an existing hardware and propellant system design, according to NASA.<\/p>\n Dragon\u2019s engines are not facing the right direction to pull off the boost maneuvers; hence, the need for the additional engines that are aligned with the velocity vector of the ISS.<\/p>\n The rear-facing engines are connected to propellant tanks filled with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, which ignite when they come in contact with one another. When it\u2019s time to give the ISS a little boost, the engines will ignite and lightly adjust the space station\u2019s altitude in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n Multiple reboost options <\/p>\n NASA and SpaceX tested<\/a> Dragon\u2019s ability to reboost the ISS in November 2024 through a demonstration that lasted approximately 12 minutes. Dragon successfully adjusted the station\u2019s orbit by 7\/100 of a mile at apogee, the point at which it\u2019s farthest away from Earth, and 7\/10 of a mile at perigee, when it is closest to Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cBy testing the spacecraft\u2019s ability to provide reboost and, eventually, attitude control, NASA\u2019s International Space Station Program will have multiple spacecraft available to provide these capabilities for the orbital complex,\u201d NASA wrote in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n The Dragon spacecraft will remain docked to the ISS until December\u2014the longest period for a cargo mission\u2014in order to pull off the reboost maneuvers in the coming months. The boost kit being used on this mission is a smaller version of one SpaceX is currently developing for the space station\u2019s final deorbit<\/a>.<\/p>\n The ISS is due to retire by 2030, and NASA plans on using a Dragon spacecraft to perform a series of deorbit burns that will lower the space station\u2019s altitude until it burns up in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Until the moment comes for its impending doom, the ISS will get to enjoy a little boost from Dragon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Space Station (ISS) has been in orbit for over 26 years, housing astronauts at an altitude…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,9693,66,306,6888,57893],"class_list":{"0":"post-99882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-international-space-station","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-spacex","14":"tag-spacex-dragon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}