NASA, SpaceX to launch Cargo Dragon on a mission to spice up house station orbit – Spaceflight Now

NASA and SpaceX are getting ready to embark on a novel cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon spacecraft set to launch within the predawn hours of Sunday morning incorporates a new propulsion system inside its unpressurized trunk.

This addition will permit the spacecraft to spice up the orbit of the house station, maintaining it in its desired orbit and taking a few of the workload off the Russian Progress automobiles and the station thrusters. NASA is having SpaceX carry out this operation as a part of its multi-year technique getting ready for the tip of the ISS’ operation in low Earth orbit.

“The hardware located inside the trunk of Dragon contains an independent propellant system, separate from the spacecraft, to fuel two Draco engines using existing hardware and propellant systems,” mentioned Bill Spetch, operations integration supervisor for NASA’s International Space Station Program, throughout a prelaunch teleconference on Friday.

“The boost kit will help sustain the orbiting lab’s altitude starting in September with a series of burns planned periodically throughout the Fall of 2025.”

Liftoff of SpaceX’s thirty third Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-33) mission to the ISS is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 24, at 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 UTC). Dragon will fly atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Spaceflight Now may have reside protection starting about an hour previous to liftoff.

The forty fifth Weather Squadron forecast a 70 % likelihood for favorable climate in the course of the instantaneous launch window. Its predominant issues have been associated to cumulus clouds and lightning within the neighborhood of the pad.

Meteorologists additionally famous that the booster restoration climate will probably be at a reasonable threat degree on a scale of low-moderate-high.

“A slight risk of isolated offshore thunderstorms will continue into the early morning hours,” launch climate officers wrote on Saturday. “Vertical wind shear is anticipated to be very weak, with westerly flow aloft advecting offshore anvil development eastward, away from the spaceport.”

SpaceX will launch the mission utilizing its Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail quantity B1090, which is able to fly for a seventh time. Its earlier missions included Crew-10, Bandwagon-3 and O3b mPOWER-E.

More than 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1091 will goal a touchdown on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ positioned within the Atlantic Ocean. If profitable, this would be the 121st touchdown on this vessel and the 492nd booster touchdown thus far.

The Dragon capsule, serial quantity C211 will probably be flying for a 3rd time, following the launches of CRS-26 in November 2022 and CRS-29 in November 2023. The spacecraft is loaded with greater than 5,000 kilos of science and provides.

It’s scheduled to stay docked to the house station for roughly 5 months, marking SpaceX’s first long-duration CRS mission thus far.

Giving a lift

The increase functionality constructed into the Dragon spacecraft flying this mission has been within the works for a while. C208 carried out an indication of a lift functionality in the course of the CRS-31 mission on Nov. 8, 2024.

Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon Mission Management, mentioned as a result of the Draco thrusters on the capsule aren’t oriented optimally to carry out a booster maneuver, SpaceX wanted to design a brand new increase equipment that may reside within the unpressurized trunk.

She mentioned SpaceX added some new connect factors to the within of the trunk so as to mount the propulsion system, which will probably be on all future trunks. Walker mentioned the propellant tanks have been used in the course of the launch abort assessments carried out with Dragon in 2020 and the Draco engines have been flown on the Crew-8 mission.

“Those are all mounted to this cargo rack assembly that we would normally mount unpressurized payloads to. We specifically added six propellant tanks, one pressurant tank, two Draco engines and a new heater and and insulation system to address the thermal considerations when these engines are firing for prolonged periods of time,” Walker mentioned.

“We took some spare comms channels that already existed on Dragon and we routed them through the umbilical connections in the claw down to the trunk, so that we could talk to the boost kit,” she added.

Spetch mentioned the increase equipment would give Dragon about 1.5 occasions the reboost functionality of a Russian Progress spacecraft. He mentioned though Progress would make one or two reboost burns, the plan is for Dragon C211 to carry out “the vast majority” of orbit elevating maneuvers whereas it’s docked on the station.

“We’ve meticulously planned out these reboost times with the entire partnership because it’s important for where it sets up the ISS for all the visiting vehicles to come to it. And so, we have this one planned out really closely,” Spetch mentioned.

This mission will assist inform the event of the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, which is an extension of the Dragon structure that’s designed to assist the U.S. and Russia carry out a managed deorbit of the ISS round 2030 or 2031.

New science and provides going up

Onboard the Dragon spacecraft will probably be 5,070 kilos (2,300 kg) of cargo with the vast majority of that (2,405 lbs. / 1,091 kg) being crew provides, like meals and garments. Among which are 129 customary baggage containing meals; 33 crew-specific baggage; 18 baggage for espresso and tea; and 14 baggage only for tortillas.

“This is the first time that tortillas now have their very own bulk overwrap bags. Instead of being tucked into other food categories, this mission is actually delivering 14 dedicated tortilla bags, carrying a total of over 1,500 tortillas to fuel future crew meals in orbit,” Spetch mentioned. “We fly tortillas because other breads and things like that have too many crumbs and things of that nature, so you can’t actually maintain it in orbit. And tortillas are a great substitute for that.”

There are additionally 985 kilos (447 kg) of science investigation provides. Among the investigations heading into orbit are a European Space Agency (ESA) steel 3D printing experiment, a biotechnology experiment learning lab grown liver tissues with blood vessels and 3D-printed medical implant experiment that may be able to both delivering medicine or treating heath situations, like nerve accidents.

“The SpaceX 33 Cargo Dragon spacecraft specifically will be carrying the hardware and samples to support right around 50 difference scientific studies and research facilities,” mentioned Heidi Parris, the affiliate program scientist for NASA’s ISS Program Research Office.