A trunk module on a Dragon cargo flight carries engines oriented to maximize propellant efficiency for ISS reboosts. SpaceX controllers will command the Draco thrusters to ignite when NASA authorizes the maneuver. The reboost kit can add about 20 mph (9 meters per second) to the station's speed, roughly equal to the impulse from one-and-a-half Russian Progress vehicles and amounting to about one-third to one-fourth of the station's annual orbit maintenance. Burns are planned periodically through fall 2025. After several months docked, the Dragon capsule will return via parachute splashdown and be recovered; the trunk will jettison and burn up.
Our capsule's engines are not pointed in the right direction for optimum boost,
So, this trunk module has engines pointed in the right direction to maximize efficiency of propellant usage.
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,
Just incredible. Together, these missions have (carried) well over 300,000 pounds of cargo and supplies to the orbiting lab and well over 1,000 science and research projects that are not only helping us to understand how to live and work effectively in space... but also directly contributing to critical research that serves our lives here on Earth.
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