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The Crew Dragon Resilience disconnects to the forefront of the International Space Station on April 5, 2021. NASA TV
SpaceX’s first full-fledged space crew successfully maneuvered its Crew Dragon spaceship to a new port in the International Space Station on Monday. It was the first time the vehicle attempted the maneuver.
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A port move, requiring the spacecraft to retreat from the ISS harbor where it had been since arriving at the orbital laboratory in November, would then have to fly to another, space-oriented harbor and would rather board there. Russian Soyuz vehicles have done relocation maneuvers 15 times in the past, but no astronauts have done so in a commercial spacecraft before.
The spaceship shuffle paved the way for SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon capsule to arrive at the ISS. The mission, called Crew-2, will be launched on April 22, bringing four more astronauts to the space station.
The four astronauts on the mission, which is currently in orbit, Crew-1, will return to Earth about five days after Crew-2 arrives. In overlap time, there are two Crew Dragons attached to the ISS – and a crowded house of 11 people in space.
© NASA via AP
A Dragon cargo capsule docked at the ISS on December 7, 2020, along with a Crew Dragon capsule that had been carrying astronauts three weeks earlier. NASA via AP
Now that NASA is launching regular spaceflights from both SpaceX and the Russian Soyuz launch system, the ISS is expected to be regularly pressured. Future Crew Dragons will probably also have to switch ports, especially if Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft joins the mix later this year. SpaceX and Boeing both developed their spaceships through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, a competition that was to spur the development of commercial alternatives for Soyuz.
“The space station has become the spaceport we want it to be, with vehicles flying there and returning science and cargo loads and doing amazing things on orbit,” said Kathy Leuders, NASA’s co-administrator of human reconnaissance and operations, in ‘ said a press release in March. .
See how the Crew Dragon parking lots connect
© SpaceX via NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 crew members in Crew Dragon spacecraft during training. From left to right: NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. SpaceX via NASA
In preparation for the port’s relocation, the Crew-1 astronauts – NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and the Japanese Soichi Noguchi – changed into their spacecraft early Monday morning. Space packs are needed for maneuvers to get on and off, in case something goes wrong and the spacecraft’s cabin is compromised.
SpaceX also had a repair ship that splashed near the Atlantic Ocean in case the crew sheet had to break down and sink back to Earth.
But everything seems to be going smoothly. The astronauts boarded the Crew Dragon capsule, which they called ‘Resilience’, to check for air pressure leaks, and then instructed the spacecraft to begin the fully automatic maneuver. The brackets that Resilience holds at the front port of the space station air at 6:30 p.m. ET retracted and disconnected the spacecraft from the ISS. The vehicle then shoots its impellers to drive back.
For the next 30 minutes, as the earth orbited at about 5 miles per second, Resilience moved above the ISS, aligning itself with the station’s space-oriented port. It was there at 7:08 a.m. ET.
NASA aired the maneuver in the video below. Disconnection starts at about 30:45.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her Russian colleagues Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov also made their own port move on March 19th. port. This leaves the former open for the next Soyuz spacecraft to train three more astronauts on April 9th.
Unlike Crew Dragon, however, Soyuz must be managed manually.
After Crew-1 returns to Earth, an unmanned spacecraft Cargo Dragon carrying new solar panels for the ISS will take its place on the port of Zenith.
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