Draco Is All Fired Up For Dragon

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has marked another significant advance with the performance of its smallest rocket engine, Draco.

Known as a "thruster," the new engine fired continuously for ten minutes in a specially constructed vacuum test chamber that simulates the space environment. After a ten-minute thermal soak period, Draco was restarted for an additional minute, simulating its typical use in space. Performed at the SpaceX Texas Test Facility outside McGregor, this marks the longest firing of the Draco thruster, as well as the longest test on the new vacuum test stand, built by SpaceX and first put into operation in March 2008. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft uses a total of 18 Draco thrusters for maneuvering, attitude control, and to initiate the capsule's return to Earth. The SpaceX-developed Draco thruster generates up to 90 pounds (400 Newtons) of force using monomethyl hydrazine as a fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer — the same orbital maneuvering propellants used by the Space Shuttle. These storable propellants have very long on-orbit lifetimes, providing the option for the Dragon spacecraft to remain berthed at the ISS for a year or more, ready to serve as an emergency "lifeboat" if necessary. The first Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for flight in 2009 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the SpaceX launch site at Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Image is an artist's concept of Dragon spacecraft in orbit, courtesy of SpaceX.)