https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/1...pply-missions/
After key Russian launch site is damaged, NASA accelerates Dragon supply missions
With a key Russian launch pad out of service, NASA is accelerating the launch of two Cargo Dragon spaceships in order to ensure that astronauts on board the International Space Station have all the supplies they need next year.
According to the space agency’s internal schedule, the next Dragon supply mission, CRS-34, is moving forward one month from June 2026 to May. And the next Dragon supply mission after this, CRS-35, has been advanced three months from November to August.
A source indicated that the changing schedules are a “direct result” of a
launch pad incident on Thanksgiving Day at the Russian spaceport in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.…..
The decision by NASA to bring forward the two Dragon missions indicates a desire by the US space agency to ensure there is enough food, water, oxygen, and other supplies on board should the revised schedule for visiting Progress vehicles slip.
It is by no means certain that Russia will be able to fix the Site 31 launch infrastructure during the next four months. The average temperature during winter months is typically well below 0 degrees Celsius, and the country’s economic and industrial resources have largely been devoted to a war against Ukraine, rather than civil activities such as human spaceflight.
Fortunately NASA has other resources it can call on beyond Dragon. A Northrop Grumman supply vehicle, Cygnus, could be ready to fly as early as April 2026. And Japan has a new cargo ship as well, HTV-X, which could deliver supplies next summer.
So for NASA and the international partnership that operates the space station, the damage at Site 31 is unlikely to become acute unless work is delayed into next fall—when Progress vehicles will be needed for propellant delivery and Soyuz spacecraft to relieve the crew in orbit.