SpaceX’s upgraded spacecraft Cargo Dragon is just a day or two away from its first departure from the International Space Station (ISS), the redesign of the earth and the splashing of the ocean.
The unmanned Dragon capsule (known as C208) and its consumable trunk section are currently scheduled to depart from the ISS early morning (EST) of January 12 – this is the first time an unmanned US cargo spacecraft has unlocked from orbit autonomously. . outpost. Previous U.S. lorries – including SpaceX’s own Cargo Dragon – relied on docking, arranged with the ISS and hovered nearby while using a giant robotic arm to capture and secure each spacecraft.
Cargo Dragon 2 will not be the first straight to do so: the unmanned European ATV and Russian Progress vehicles have both used the Russian docking system (RDS) to deliver cargo to the ISS during the past two decades. Dragon’s CRS-21 departure, however shall be the first time an unmanned cargo spacecraft completes a full mission using NASA’s new International Docking Adapter (IDA), as well as an IDA’s third return use ever.
In fact, SpaceX alone is responsible for the four total uses of the Space Station’s twin IDA ports – both appropriately delivered by Cargo Dragons in 2016 and 2019. In March 2019, Crew Dragon – operating without astronauts on its Demo-1 mission flew – the first spacecraft ever to dock autonomously with and from an IDA port. In May and August 2020, a separate Crew Dragon spacecraft repeats the feat, automatically boarding and disembarking with two NASA astronauts on board.
In November 2020, SpaceX Crew launched Dragon on its first operational ferry mission with four astronauts. The spacecraft was securely moored to the ISS and is scheduled to be there until at least March or April 2021. Recently, SpaceX launched its first Cargo Dragon 2 on December 6, 2020, and the spacecraft landed a day later without issue. A successful departure, re-entry and splurge will now be the beginning of a new era of autonomous SpaceX spacecraft.
Unlike the largely manual construction method used by Japanese HTV, Orbital ATK Cygnus and SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon 2 vehicles used IDA’s mechanical differences to make the cargo and crew delivery process strong. to automate. Using LiDAR, cameras, sophisticated software, SpaceX’s new Dragons effectively dock themselves, ultimately requiring less training and work for the station astronauts who would otherwise have to manually support hand operations.
Used to support cool or otherwise power-intensive cargo, Cargo Dragon 2 contains twice as many “powered lockers” as its predecessor and is scheduled to carry an impressive load of ~ 2360 kg (5200 lb) – dozens of scientific experiments – on to deliver the earth. . More than a decade after Dragon became the first private spacecraft to successfully re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, Cargo Dragon is still the only spacecraft in the world capable of delivering significant cargo from the earth to the orbit and from orbit to earth.
After releasing Cargo Dragon C208 from the consumable trunk section and re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, Cargo Dragon C208 also becomes the first cargo spacecraft to land in the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, thanks to SpaceX’s decision to launch its California and consolidate Florida dragon recovery actions on the East Coast. .
SpaceX ship GO Searcher, which was also used to repair Crew Dragons, has left Port Canaveral for its central role in CRS-21’s menacing extravagance. Once Cargo Dragon C208 splashes on one of the four available recovery zones, SpaceX repair crews will grab and secure the spacecraft and open the hatch. Unique time-sensitive loads can then be transferred to a guard helicopter for an unprecedented rapid return to researchers on land,
Stay tuned to SpaceX and NASA’s live coverage of Cargo Dragon 2’s first ISS departure and recovery on January 12 or 13.