A strange move will be made in space with the help of SpaceX this Friday (8). The company is Elon Musk he will use one of his Dragon ships to literally “push” the International Space Station (ISS).
The procedure was announced by NASA this week and will bring in a cargo capsule attached to the orbital laboratory firing its engines for just over 12 minutes, while scientists gather data to is considered important for future missions.
A mission is a test for a larger operation
The teams responsible for the move are keeping an eye on the future. More precisely in 2030, when the ISS will be “taken down” to the ocean.
To do this, the company will use a modified Dragon with more than 40 propellants. The standard boat only has 16.
Remembering that SpaceX was also chosen to develop and build the Deorbit vehicle that will be used to remove the space station, bringing it safely to Earth. The information is from Space.com.
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Why is it necessary to “push” the ISS?
- Currently, the space station is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 400 km.
- The problem is that the ISS is gradually losing altitude due to the drag of atmospheric molecules.
- This means that it needs to be “pushed” to a higher altitude from time to time.
- This mission was carried out by the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
- However, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s plans to create its own space station, NASA began to look for other options.
- The agency has already tested the procedure with the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship in 2022, but the mission stopped after a few seconds.
2024-11-08 14:18:00
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