SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has successfully reboosted the International Space Station (ISS), raising the perigee of its orbit by approximately one mile and further eroding the complex’s reliance on Russian rocketry.<\/p>\n
The reboost kit, located in the trunk of the SpaceX CRS-33 Dragon cargo spacecraft, consists of two Draco engines. The system is isolated from the rest of the spacecraft, and the demonstration<\/a> was intended to show how the vehicle can maintain the ISS’s altitude.<\/p>\n The maneuver lasted five minutes, three seconds, and the initial test burn left the outpost in an orbit of 260.9 x 256.3 miles. Managers plan to use the reboost kit again throughout fall and perform a series of longer burns.<\/p>\n The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft can also perform limited reboosts, and SpaceX demonstrated in 2024<\/a> that the Dragon itself is capable of using its engines to nudge the ISS.<\/p>\n With the retirement of the Space Shuttle and the end of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ATV<\/a> program, Roscosmos Progress vehicles have been regularly used to reboost the ISS.<\/p>\n The extra capability could be timely. Rocket and Space Corporation Energia produces the Progress spacecraft. Last week, CEO Igor Maltev reportedly<\/a> told employees that they needed to stop “lying to themselves and others about the state of affairs, convincing themselves and others that everything is fine with us.”<\/p>\n The decrepit state of the Russian space program isn’t a secret. One paying passenger on the country’s Soyuz spacecraft told The Register that having to dodge puddles on the floor from a leaking roof while on his way to inspect his vehicle was eye-opening.<\/p>\n