Dick Eagleson: Thank you. I fixed this the day you sent it, but was too busy to send the thank you.

Yes. The ISS always travels with Node 2 in the forward direction and the Russian service module in the aft direction. Thus the service module’s engines point aft and boost ISS’s speed when fired, raising its orbit.

Dragon is docked to the forward port of Node 2 with its trunk-mounted Draco engines pointed forward. Ordinarily, firing those engines would slow ISS down, lowering its orbit. So ISS will have to rotate halfway around to point Node 2 aft before Dragon fires its engines and then rotate back afterward. Fortunately both rotations can be done using the CMGs without using any additional propellant.

The reason the Dragon would put less stress on the Russian service module is that it’s clear on the other end of the space station.

It might be able to put less stress on the module.

NASA will never admit to that, so you’re going to have to draw your own conclusions.

Two thoughts come to mind. SpaceX has a contract to eventually de-orbiter the Space Station, so this test could be used for both raising the orbit, and gathering data for the eventual de-orbit.

Also, is the above test due to the Russian port being cracked and dangerous? I recall that whenever the Russian port is about to be used, the astronauts seal off the other sections in case of catastrophic failure. Using the other docking port(s) seems like a no brainer at this point.