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For the fourth time in nine months, SpaceX has docked a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with a second Dragon already present in the orbital laboratory with crew.
Launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday after a one-day weather delay, SpaceX’s first improved Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft gradually increased and changed its orbit over the course of about 30 hours, making more than 20 loops around Earth before docking with the ISS more than half an hour before the scheduled date. Dragon’s arrival on Monday, August 30 marked the docking of the second C208 cargo capsule space station in nine months, beating SpaceX and the world record for a reusable orbital space capsule – of which the Dragons are the only ones still in existence. flight.
SpaceX’s first two-flight Crew Dragon was there to welcome the first two-flight Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft when it docked, having spent the past four months in orbit in support of the second crew operational mission NASA commercial (Crew-2). A similar example of a pair of Dragons meeting in space is expected to happen at least two more times before the end of 2021.
The first two-Dragons-one-ISS instance occurred just nine months ago when the same Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft (C208 capsule) surrendered and docked to the ISS with the Crew-1 Crew Dragon. of SpaceX already attached. At the time, in a number of press conferences and public statements centered around the launch of Crew-1 and CRS-21, SpaceX repeatedly hinted at just how prolific a year 2021 would be for Dragon and it is hard to say that the company was exaggerating. .
Indeed, exactly as SpaceX predicted, the Dragon spacecraft have maintained a continuous presence in orbit and have repeatedly operated side-by-side at the ISS since the launch of Crew-1 in November 2021. For the majority of the development of NASA’s commercial crew program, this degree of continuous operations with one supplier was never meant to happen. SpaceX’s upgraded Cargo Dragon, for example, is one of two independent Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) spacecraft that regularly resupply the space station, providing redundancy in the event a spacecraft or rocket encounters issues. major. A third CRS vehicle – the Dream Chaser Sierra Nevada spacecraft – will also begin cargo deliveries sometime next year.
NASA’s commercial crew program was structured similarly, with Boeing and SpaceX serving as two redundant crew transport providers. Of course, things didn’t go exactly as planned, and Boeing – despite receiving 60% (~ $ 2 billion) more funding than SpaceX – has suffered a number of catastrophic issues in recent years, almost dooming the first unmanned launch of its Starliner spacecraft in December 2019 and ultimately delay the company by two years or more.
After other issues delayed the Starliner (OFT-2) unmanned test flight from August through late 2021 or early 2022, it’s entirely possible that SpaceX will work as the only crew transport solution. from NASA for over 18 months before Boeing flew a single astronaut. In other words, it is likely that SpaceX will have to maintain the extraordinary rate of Dragon launches demonstrated in 2021 through 2022, and possibly even 2023. Since November 2020, SpaceX has launched three Cargo Dragon 2 refueling missions and eight astronauts on two Crew Dragons. .
Two more NASA Dragon missions – Crew-3 and CRS-24 – are slated to launch in October and December 2021, and the first fully private launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 Crew Dragon could take place as early as September 15. Until the Boeing Starliner is able to fulfill its role of crew transport, all future SpaceX Crew and Cargo missions for NASA – including Crew-3 and CRS-24 – will continue to see one Dragon encounter. another to the ISS. All in all, barring possible delays from the CRS-24, SpaceX is on track to launch eight Dragons – four Crew and four Cargo; 16 astronauts and 11 tons of supplies for the space station – in 13 months.
While Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon 2 are considered two variations of the same Dragon 2 spacecraft, the only other example in history where another orbital spacecraft made nearly eight successful orbital launches in about 13 months was the Gemini program of NASA, which completed eight crews. test flights in ~ 14 months in 1965 and 1966.
NASA’s Apollo spacecraft also completed six successful flights (5 manned, 1 unmanned) in 13 months in 1968 and 1969. Russian Soyuz vehicles – the most prolific manned spacecraft in history – also performed successfully flown 8 times in 13 months and 9 times in 14 months in the 1970s. Simply put, SpaceX’s Dragon program now runs on its own at or above the two most prolific national space programs in history to funding heights that have not been touched since and at a fraction of the cost.
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