Last week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who have been stationed at the International Space Station (ISS), will return to Earth in February 2025 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon flight.
Williams and Wilmore arrived at the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner in June, with plans to return within a week. However, technical problems prevented the spacecraft from beginning its journey back to Earth. NASA has now decided that Starliner will return uncrewed to avoid exposing astronauts to unnecessary risks.
NASA and SpaceX are currently tackling several tasks in preparation for the launch of Crew Dragon. This includes reconfiguring the seats and modifying the manifest to accommodate additional cargo. Below is an overview of Crew Dragon and its features.
What is Crew Dragon?
The Crew Dragon is one of two versions of SpaceX’s Dragon 2 spacecraft, which is partially reusable. The other version is the Cargo Dragon. As the name suggests, the Crew Dragon is primarily used to transport astronauts to the ISS, while the Cargo Dragon is tasked with delivering supplies to the space station.
SpaceX designed Crew Dragon as part of NASA’s strategy to transfer space station missions to American companies following the retirement of its space shuttle in 2011. Crew Dragon’s inaugural mission to the ISS occurred in 2020, with four American and Japanese astronauts on board. The spacecraft has since completed eight crew rotation missions to the space station for NASA.
What are the features of Crew Dragon?
The Crew Dragon is made up of two components: a reusable space capsule and an expandable trunk module.
The capsule is reportedly equipped with 16 Draco thrusters that allow it to maneuver in orbit, with each thruster generating 90 pounds of force in the vacuum of space. The report also mentioned that the trunk includes solar panels, radiators that remove heat, cargo space, and fins that provide stability during emergency aborts.
The spacecraft is launched into space using a Falcon 9, a two-stage reusable rocket developed by SpaceX, and automatically docks with the ISS.
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