The International Space Station will be repositioned to its proper orbit by SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft that departed last Nov. 5 from its Florida base to dock with the ISS where it delivered a cargo of supplies and materials intended for science experiments. The freighter will stay there for about a month before returning to Earth. The ISS needs to be periodically repositioned as it constantly loses altitude due to the atmospheric friction to which it is subjected. This operation has so far been carried out by Russian Soyuz shuttles, but for the first time in history, it will be entrusted to a private vehicle from Elon Musk’s company.
SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon will initiate repositioning by firing its engines for an expected period of about 12 minutes and perform a maneuver that will return the Space Station to its optimal position.
It is also an operation aimed at collecting valuable data useful for the development of a future “Super Dragon” shuttle that SpaceX is already planning to build in agreement with NASA. This will be used to return the Space Station to Earth soil in 2030 when it is no longer operational.
The project is part of an $843 million contract announced by NASA last June, which includes Musk’s company’s development of a ‘space tug,’ which is to dock the ISS and accompany it on a controlled reentry back to Earth, to a remote ocean region.
Jared Metter, director for flight reliability at SpaceX pointed out, “The data we will gather from this operation about how we control attitude will be very useful, especially for the future vehicle that will tow the ISS out of its orbit.”
