"Following a successful demonstration on September 3, NASA and SpaceX were trying for a 19-minute, 22-second burn using the Draco thrusters located in the trunk of SpaceX's CRS-33 Dragon cargo spacecraft. However, at three minutes and 45 seconds, controllers saw something they didn't like and commanded a manual abort. The problem was that a planned swap of the Draco thruster fuel tanks did not occur, and controllers at SpaceX and NASA's Johnson Space Center opted to halt the proceedings to conserve propellant."
"The retirement of the Space Shuttles and the end of the European Space Agency's ATV program have left NASA with fewer options for boosting the ISS's orbit, which decays naturally over time. Roscosmos's Progress spacecraft have raised the outpost's orbit for years, and Northrop Grumman's Cygnus vehicle is capable of limited reboosts. Using a reboost kit carried in the trunk of a Dragon freighter gives NASA extra options for maintaining the lab's altitude."
NASA advanced plans to boost the rapidly decaying orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and attempted an ISS reboost using a SpaceX Dragon vehicle. Following a successful demonstration on September 3, NASA and SpaceX attempted a 19-minute, 22-second Draco thruster burn from the CRS-33 Dragon trunk but aborted at three minutes and 45 seconds when a planned fuel tank swap did not occur. Controllers at SpaceX and NASA's Johnson Space Center halted the burn to conserve propellant. The first test burn lasted five minutes and three seconds; managers intended longer burns and hope to try again. Retirement of the Space Shuttle program and the end of ESA's ATV reduced reboost options, leaving Progress and Cygnus as primary alternatives. A reboost kit in Dragon's trunk provides additional ISS altitude-maintenance capability. NASA awarded Katalyst Space Technologies a $30 million contract to send a robotic servicing spacecraft to raise Swift's orbit and potentially extend its lifetime.
Read at Theregister
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]