SpaceX Dragon successfully boosts International Space Station
SpaceX has successfully completed a burn to test its capabilities of maintaining the orbit of the International Space Station. A modified Dragon is scheduled to deorbit the orbital complex in the early 2030s.
On 3 September, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon successfully executed a burn test to maintain the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS). A pair of Draco engines located in the trunk of the Dragon were used to adjust the orbit of the ISS with a manoeuvre that lasted five minutes and three seconds. The initial burn boosted the altitude of the station by about 1.6 km. NASA plans to conduct a series of burns through the remainder of 2025 to use the boost kit on the Dragon and increase the altitude of the orbital complex. A series of periodic burns are planned.
The SpaceX Dragon travelled to the ISS with 2270 kg of supplies and docked with the orbital complex on 25 August, 2025. The Dragon is scheduled to remain docked with the Space Station till late December or early January next year, after which it will return to the Earth with research experiments and cargo, splashing down off the coast of California. The reboost kit is an external payload, consisting of an independent propellent system located in the trunk of the Dragon. This new propellent hardware was visually inspected by the Canadarm2 robotic arm after the Dragon docked with the ISS.
Maintaining the altitude of the ISS
The altitude of the orbital complex is maintained primarily by the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian segment. Russia plans to withdraw from the international collaboration by 2028, and deploy its own Russian Orbital Station (ROS), with the United States subsequently planning to deorbit the ISS with a more powerful version of the SpaceX Dragon. NASA has chalked out a retirement plan for the ISS, and plans to move to Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLDs), that will provide American researchers access to a microgravity research environment.