{"id":43818,"date":"2025-08-25T21:07:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-latest-dragon-mission-will-breathe-more-fire-at-the-space-station\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T21:07:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:07:03","slug":"spacexs-latest-dragon-mission-will-breathe-more-fire-at-the-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-latest-dragon-mission-will-breathe-more-fire-at-the-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s latest Dragon mission will breathe more fire at the space station"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX completed its 33rd cargo delivery to the International Space Station early Monday, when a Dragon supply ship glided to an automated docking with more than 5,000 pounds of scientific experiments and provisions for the lab\u2019s seven-person crew.<\/p>\n

The resupply flight is part of the normal rotation of cargo and crew missions that keep the space station operating. The Dragon spacecraft\u2019s cargo haul comprised packages of fresh food, including some 1,500 tortillas, and equipment for numerous research investigations demonstrating 3D printing in microgravity and examining how the human body responds to long-duration spaceflight.<\/p>\n

The cargo manifest is typical of most Dragon resupply flights traveling to the International Space Station. What\u2019s different with this mission is a new rocket pack mounted inside the Dragon spacecraft\u2019s rear trunk section. In the coming weeks, SpaceX and NASA will use this first-of-its-kind propulsion system to begin boosting the altitude of the space station\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

Maintaining control<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe space station\u2019s altitude slowly decays over time due to the thin amount of atmosphere still at our altitude,\u201d said Bill Spetch, NASA\u2019s operations integration manager for the International Space Station. \u201cTo counteract that drag, we must occasionally raise the altitude of the ISS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responsibility for maintaining the station\u2019s orbit has historically been borne by the Russian space agency, which had the sole capability to reboost the ISS after NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011. Russia\u2019s Progress cargo freighters often use their own thrusters to raise the lab\u2019s altitude or steer it out of the way of space junk. What\u2019s more, Progress ships can refill propellant tanks inside the station\u2019s Russian command post, giving the outpost the ability to perform its own maneuvers when necessary.<\/p>\n

But that is changing as NASA works with SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, the agency\u2019s other commercial cargo transport contractor, to modify their Dragon and Cygnus supply ships for reboost missions.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Northrop\u2019s Cygnus spacecraft first demonstrated its ability to raise the station\u2019s orbit in 2022. Cygnus missions connect with the space station at a berthing port on the bottom side of the complex. In the space station\u2019s usual configuration, this location is not ideal for a reboost because it is misaligned with the lab\u2019s velocity vector, an imaginary line running through the complex along its direction of travel.<\/p>\n

In low-Earth orbit, thrusters raise the station\u2019s altitude by adding a small amount of velocity to the lab as it circles the Earth at more than 17,000 mph. The Cygnus spacecraft compensated for its suboptimal position on the ISS by using its steerable main engine, using gimbals to move the engine\u2019s nozzle to direct its thrust in the right direction.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo vehicles, on the other hand, are able to dock at the forward end of the space station\u2019s long axis. Theoretically, this would make it easier for Dragon to boost the station\u2019s orbit, but SpaceX must set aside enough propellant for the spacecraft to travel up to the ISS and then return to Earth at the end of its mission. Dragon\u2019s 16 Draco thrusters are also not steerable, but SpaceX demonstrated they could make small adjustments to the station\u2019s orbit last year.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A look inside the Dragon spacecraft\u2019s trunk shows six propellant tanks covered in silver insulation and a central helium pressurant tank overwrapped in black carbon.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

When NASA asked SpaceX to modify Dragon for larger reboosts, engineers devised a new propulsion pack to be placed inside the hollow trunk of the spacecraft. This unpressurized compartment is mounted below the craft\u2019s pressurized cargo cabin, and it\u2019s where SpaceX usually carries larger experiments that are robotically attached to the outside of the ISS.<\/p>\n

For this mission, SpaceX installed two additional Draco thrusters into the spacecraft\u2019s trunk. The small rear-facing rocket engines are closely aligned with the station\u2019s velocity vector, and they\u2019re connected to six dedicated propellant tanks in the trunk containing hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, combustible fluids that ignite upon contact with one another.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cOur capsule\u2019s engines are not pointed in the right direction for optimum boost,\u201d said Sarah Walker, SpaceX\u2019s director of Dragon mission management. \u201cSo, this trunk module has engines pointed in the right direction to maximize efficiency of propellant usage.\u201d<\/p>\n

When NASA says it\u2019s the right time, SpaceX controllers will command the Draco thrusters to ignite and gently accelerate the massive 450-ton complex. All told, the reboost kit can add about 20 mph, or 9 meters per second, to the space station\u2019s already-dizzying speed, according to Walker.<\/p>\n

Spetch said that\u2019s roughly equivalent to the total reboost impulse provided by one-and-a-half Russian Progress cargo vehicles. That\u2019s about one-third to one-fourth of the total orbit maintenance the ISS needs in a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boost kit will help sustain the orbiting lab\u2019s altitude, starting in September, with a series of burns planned periodically throughout the fall of 2025,\u201d Spetch said.<\/p>\n

After a few months docked at the ISS, the Dragon cargo capsule will depart and head for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. SpaceX will recover the pressurized capsule to fly again, while the trunk containing the reboost kit will jettison and burn up in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking at 7:05 am EDT (11:05 UTC) on Monday.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA TV\/Ars Technica<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

While this mission is SpaceX\u2019s 33rd cargo flight to the ISS under the auspices of NASA\u2019s multibillion-dollar Commercial Resupply Services contract, it\u2019s also SpaceX\u2019s 50th overall Dragon mission to the outpost. This tally includes 17 flights of the human-rated Crew Dragon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith CRS-33, we\u2019ll mark our 50th voyage to ISS,\u201d Walker said. \u201cJust incredible. Together, these missions have (carried) well over 300,000 pounds of cargo and supplies to the orbiting lab and well over 1,000 science and research projects that are not only helping us to understand how to live and work effectively in space\u2026 but also directly contributing to critical research that serves our lives here on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future Dragon trunks will be able to accommodate a reboost kit or unpressurized science payloads, depending on NASA\u2019s needs at the space station.<\/p>\n

The design of the Dragon reboost kit is a smaller-scale version of what SpaceX will build for a much larger Dragon trunk under a $843 million contract signed with NASA last year for the US Deorbit Vehicle. This souped-up Dragon will dock with the ISS and steer it back into the atmosphere after the lab\u2019s decommissioning in the early 2030s. The deorbit vehicle will have 46 Draco thrusters\u201416 to control the craft\u2019s orientation and 30 in the trunk to provide the impulse needed to drop the station out of orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX completed its 33rd cargo delivery to the International Space Station early Monday, when a Dragon supply ship glided to an automated docking with more than 5,000 pounds of scientific experiments and provisions for the lab\u2019s seven-person crew. The resupply flight is part of the normal rotation of cargo and crew missions that keep the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}