The International Space Station (ISS) is going just a little bit faster today, after receiving an orbital boost from SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

The milestone marks the symbolic beginning of the end of the ISS, as data from the maneuver will be used to design the deorbit vehicle that NASA has commissioned SpaceX to build to plunge the decommissioned space station into the Pacific Ocean after 2030 .

For the first time, Dragon performed an orbit-raising maneuver on November 8 to stabilize the trajectory of the ISS in low Earth orbit. SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply mission took off on November 4, launching a Dragon cargo vehicle for a rendezvous with the ISS.

In July, SpaceX was tasked with deorbiting the ISS no sooner than 2030, once new commercial space stations are ready to replace the aging complex. SpaceX will use a Dragon monster for this effort, so the planned ISS reboost using the current generation of Dragon will be useful.

The ISS is in low Earth orbit, approximately 400 km above our planet. The six-chamber complex collapses over time, requiring the use of a spaceship to “reboost” or push the space station to a higher altitude.

Traditionally, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft fulfilled this reboost capability, but things are changing quickly after its unauthorized invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

After almost 25 years, NASA has predicted the viability of the ISS until the end of this decade. Citing aging technology, growing maintenance needs and increasing costs, the space agency aims to decommission the space station no sooner than 2030. Removing the space station will free up financial room for the space agency to expanding its efforts such as the Artemis program and other deep space explorations. missions.

Jared Metter, director of flight reliability at SpaceX, expressed optimism during a press conference on November 4, saying that today’s attitude control maneuver was “a good demonstration” of the capabilities of Dragon as the company designs the ISS deorbit vehicle.

Dragon’s success eliminates U.S. dependence on Russia for space station operation, should that partnership dissolve.

Between the Space Shuttle’s retirement in 2011 and the start of Dragon’s crewed missions, the only way NASA astronauts could launch to the ISS was aboard a Russian spacecraft. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon returned NASA’s astronaut launch to American soil in 2020 and has now proven it can maintain the space station’s orbit indefinitely.

While NASA has committed to its ISS partnership until 2030, Russia, for now, has only committed until 2028, declaring its intention to launch a new Russian space station in polar orbit by 2027.