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NASA’s Crew Dragon
Context
NASA has announced that astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, currently aboard the ISS, will return to Earth in February 2025 aboard a Crew Dragon flight.
AboutCrew Dragon
- Crew Dragon, developed by SpaceX, is one of the two variants of the Dragon 2 spacecraft, designed for space missions.
- While Crew Dragon is used to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), the other variant, Cargo Dragon, is used for cargo deliveries.
- Crew Dragon was developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to replace the space shuttle program, which was retired in 2011.
- It made its first crewed mission to the ISS in 2020, carrying four American and Japanese astronauts. Since then, Crew Dragon has completed eight crew rotation missions.
- Features
- Spacecraft Design: Crew Dragon consists of two main components:
- Reusable Capsule: Houses the crew and is equipped with 16 Draco thrusters for orbital maneuvering. Each thruster produces 90 pounds of force.
- Expandable Trunk Module: Contains solar panels, heat-removal radiators, cargo space, and stability fins for emergency aborts.
- Launch and Docking: The spacecraft is launched into orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which is reusable. It docks automatically with the ISS using advanced sensors and cameras, including Lidar for precise distance measurements and relative velocity calculations.
- Return to Earth: When it's time for the crew to return, Crew Dragon undocks from the ISS, and the trunk module is jettisoned and burns up upon re-entry. The capsule performs a de-orbit burn to reduce speed and then re-enters Earth's atmosphere. Four parachutes are deployed to slow its descent, and it finally splashes down in the ocean, where it is recovered by a recovery ship.
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