Cargo Dragon Provides Space Station With First Boost

HOUSTON—NASA’s 33rd SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has completed its first “boost kit” propulsion maneuver to help maintain the orbital laboratory’s altitude.

The maneuver, conducted on Sept. 3, lasted 5 min. and 3 sec., raising the low point of the nearly 1 million-lb. ISS’s orbit by about 1 mi., a NASA mission update said. The maneuver positioned the orbital lab in a 260- by 256.3-mi.-high orbit as it circles the Earth at a 51.6-deg. inclination to the equator.

The Dragon docked to the ISS on Aug. 25, a day after launching.

The Dragon is docked to the forward docking port of the orbital lab’s U.S. segment Harmony module, where it is to remain parked into December. The 5,000 lb. of cargo delivered included crew supplies and scientific research as well as the boost kit, an independent propulsion source positioned within the Dragon capsule’s trunk.

The boost kit includes propellant tanks, a pressurization tank and two Draco engines for periodic altitude raising of the station. It is intended to augment the station’s Russian segment orbit raising propulsion assets, which are the Zvezda Service Module and docked Progress cargo capsules.

The ISS’s  orbital altitude decreases gradually due to interactions with the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The Dragon boost kit is intended to help maintain the orbiting lab’s altitude with a series of longer burns planned periodically throughout this fall.