Cygnus Boosts the International Space Station for the First Time. NASA Can Now Potentially Keep the Station Aloft Without Russia’s Progress Spacecraft

A successful reboost of the International Space Station took place over the weekend. Since the space shuttles retired, there has been no US-based spaceship that has provided a substantial adjustment to the International Space Station. Russia has provided the primary source for station reboosts, attitude control, and debris avoidance maneuvers.

A critical capability to help maintain and support the space station has been added thanks to the reboost of the space station. It also shows the enormous capability Cygnus has.

The station's perigee and apogee were raised by about 0.8 kilometers and 0.2 kilometers, respectively, for a test of this enhanced capability.

Since February, the Cygnus has been docked to the International Space Station. The ninth Cygnus mission conducted a test of the reboost capability by burning its main engine for 50 seconds to raise the Station's altitude by 90 meters. The second attempt to raise the station's altitude was aborted just five seconds after the first attempt was aborted. The abort was a precautionary measure, according to Northrup Grumman. The observed parameters were looked at by engineers and found to be in line with expectations.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the US's ability to provide propulsion to the International Space Station came to the fore. After sanctions were imposed on Russia by the US and other countries who are part of the space station consortium, the Director-General of the Russian State Space Corporation warned that Russia might end its cooperation in space. A video depicting the Russian modules detaching from the International Space Station was shown by the Russian news agency. There were volleys on social media from Rogozin, but tempers seemed to have cooled recently.

The International Space Station usually gets all of its power from the Russian segments and cargo ships. The Zvezda module has a set of thrusters that can be used, however, they are only used when the station is not able to do the task. The orientation of the station can be controlled with the help of the U.S. gyros. NASA said that Russian thrusters are used for attitude control during dockings and for recovery when the control limit is reached.

The space station still depends on the Russian sources for any needed maneuvers after Cygnus left. Dragon capsule can help maneuver the station, but they don't currently have that ability.

Since its first mission to the station in 2013, a series of improvements have been made to the craft. The company has increased the amount of cargo it can carry to the station with a larger cargo module, lighter and more powerful solar panels, and upgraded many of its systems to make reboost possible.

More than 112,000 pounds of equipment and supplies have been delivered to the crew of the International Space Station. The Cygnus vehicle was packed with garbage before it went back over the ocean.