When you buy through links on our articles, future and its syndication partners can earn a committee.
The CRS-33 Dragon Cargo space vessel from SpaceX brings its last approach to the international space station during its docking on August 25, 2025. The same spacecraft was used for a herbost demonstration of the track complex on 3 September 2025. | Credit: NASA
A dragon pushed the international space station a little further away from the earth.
SpaceXs Dragon freight spacecraft has successfully completed a test of the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday (September 3), according to NASA. The cargo ship fired two of his draco engines for 5 minutes and 3 seconds during the maneuver, agency officials wrote in a Wednesday statement.
The ISS jobs about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth On average, but of course falls back to our planet because of atmospheric resistance. (There is not much atmosphere that high, but the few stray molecules make a difference over time.) Visit freight vessels therefore takes the work to raise the orbit complex every few months.
This task has been done historically in the first place by Russian progress space, but Russia is allowed Withdraw from the ISS program As soon as 2028. (It is expected that the ISS will continue to work until the end of 2030 or early 2031.)
NASA has therefore asked the current US ISS -Voorradingvaig – the dragon of SpaceX and Northrop Grumman‘s Cygnus vehicle – to perform re -boost demonstrations in recent years. SpaceX’s first such test happened on November 8, 2024.
And on Wednesday, Dragon’s efforts brought the station to a job of 260.9 by 256.3 miles (419.9 by 412 km), according to NASA.
“The new boost kit in Dragon will help support the height of the Orkitab Laboratory by a series of longer burns that are periodically planned during the fall of 2025,” officials from the agency added to the explanation.
NASA has said that these tests will also be important for another SpaceX track on the road: the earring of the ISS itself. In July 2024, SpaceX was commissioned to bring the ISS in a controlled way when it is time, using a monster dragon to fulfill the duty.
Related stories:
– SpaceX’s Dragon is about to do something with the ISS that it has never done before
– NASA Astronaut takes a spooky photo of SpaceX Dragon Capsule from ISS
– SpaceX has come up with a dragon ship on steroids to drag it out of space
This specific dragon Arrived at the ISS On 25 August with 5000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) supplies and science for the track complex and the crew of astronauts. The mission is part of the 33rd Mission of SpaceX for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Program, also known as CRS-33.
Dragon is expected to stay in the space station until the end of December or the beginning of January, at what point it goes back to the earth loaded with science and discarded items from the ISS. The Splashdown zone will be near Coastal California.