Dragon 2 is a class of partially
reusable spacecraft
A reusable spacecraft is a class of spacecraft that have been designed with repeated launch, orbit, deorbit and atmospheric reentry in mind. This contrasts with conventional spacecraft which are designed to be expended (thrown away, allowed to bur ...
developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
, primarily for flights to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
(ISS). SpaceX has also launched
private missions such as
Inspiration4
Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UTC from Kennedy S ...
and
Axiom Mission 1
Axiom Mission 1 (or Ax-1) was a privately funded and operated crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission was operated by Axiom Space out of Axiom's Mission Control Center MCC-A in Houston, Texas. The flight launched ...
. There are two variants: Crew Dragon, a spacecraft capable of ferrying four
crew, and Cargo Dragon, an updated replacement for the original
Dragon 1. The spacecraft consists of a reuseable
space capsule
A space capsule is an often-crewed spacecraft that uses a blunt-body reentry capsule to reenter the Earth's atmosphere without wings. Capsules are distinguished from other satellites primarily by the ability to survive reentry and return a payl ...
and an expendable trunk module. The spacecraft launches atop a
Falcon 9 Block 5
Falcon 9 Block 5 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thr ...
rocket and the capsule returns to
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
via
splashdown
Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft by parachute in a body of water. It was used by crewed American space capsules prior to the Space Shuttle program, by SpaceX Dragon and Dragon 2 capsules and by NASA's Orion Multipurpose Crew ...
.
Cargo Dragon
supplies cargo to the ISS under a
Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract with
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
. The
first flight
The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets.
The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alw ...
of Dragon 2 in a cargo configuration launched in December 2020. It shares this duty with
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...
'
Cygnus spacecraft, and
Sierra Nevada Corporation
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is an American, privately held aerospace and national security contractor specializing in aircraft modification and integration, space components and systems, and related technology products for cybersecurity and ...
's
Dream Chaser
Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body spaceplane being developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems. Originally intended as a crewed vehicle, the Dream Chaser Space System is set to be produced after the cargo vari ...
spacecraft is expected to join them .
, Crew Dragon is the only U.S.
human-rated
Human-rating certification, also known as man-rating or crew-rating, is the certification of a spacecraft or launch vehicle as capable of safely transporting humans. There is no one particular standard for human-rating a spacecraft or launch veh ...
orbital transport
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
, the only reusable orbital crewed spacecraft and the only reusable orbital
cargo spacecraft
Cargo spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed to carry cargo, possibly to support space stations' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. This is different from a space probes, space probe, whose missions are to ...
currently in operation. Its primary role is to transport crews to and from the ISS under
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's
Commercial Crew Program
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Sp ...
, succeeding the crew orbital transportation capabilities of the
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
,
which retired from service in 2011. It will be joined by
Boeing Starliner
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially reusable spacecraft designed to transp ...
in this role . Crew Dragon is also used for commercial flights, some of them to the ISS, and is expected to be used to shuttle people to and from
Axiom Space
Axiom Space, Inc., also known as Axiom, is an American privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Founded in 2016 by Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian, the company first flew a spaceflight in 2 ...
's
planned space station.
Development and variants
There are two variants of Dragon 2: Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon.
[Audit of Commercial Resupply Services to the International Space Station](_blank)
NASA 26 April 2018 Report No. IG-18-016 Quote: "For SpaceX, certification of the company's unproven cargo version of its Dragon 2 spacecraft for CRS-2 missions carries risk while the company works to resolve ongoing concerns related to software traceability and systems engineering processes" Crew Dragon was initially called "DragonRider"
[ ] and it was intended from the beginning to support a crew of seven or a combination of crew and cargo. Earlier spacecraft had a berthing port and were
berthed to ISS by ISS personnel. Dragon 2 instead has an
IDSS-compatible docking port to dock to the
International Docking Adapter
The International Docking Adapter (IDA) is a spacecraft docking system adapter developed to convert APAS-95 to the NASA Docking System (NDS). An IDA is placed on each of the International Space Station's (ISS) two open Pressurized Mating Adapte ...
ports on ISS. It is able to perform fully
autonomous
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...
rendezvous and docking with manual override ability
For typical missions, Crew Dragon will remain docked to the ISS for a period of 180 days, but is designed to remain on the station for up to 210 days, matching the Russian
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...
.
[ ][ ]["Spaceship teams seek more funding"](_blank)
MSNBC 10 December 2010 Retrieved 14 December 2010 SpaceX is using the Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicle to launch Dragon 2.
Crew Dragon
Crew Dragon incorporates an integrated pusher
launch escape system
A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, suc ...
consisting of eight
SuperDraco
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escap ...
engines, capable of accelerating the vehicle away from the rocket in an emergency. SpaceX originally intended to land Crew Dragon on land using the SuperDraco engines, with parachutes and an ocean splashdown available in the case of an aborted launch. Precision water landing under
parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
s was proposed to NASA as "the baseline return and recovery approach for the first few flights" of Crew Dragon.
Propulsive landing was later cancelled, leaving ocean splashdown under parachutes as the only option.
Paragon Space Development Corporation
Paragon Space Development Corporation is an American company headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. Paragon is a provider of environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. They design, build, test and operate life-support systems and l ...
assisted in developing Crew Dragon's
life-support system
A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outsid ...
.
In 2012, SpaceX was in talks with Orbital Outfitters about developing
space suit
A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...
s to wear during launch and re-entry. Each crew member wears a custom space suit fitted for them. The suit is primarily designed for use inside the Dragon (IVA type suit): however, in the case of a
rapid cabin depressurization, the suit can protect the crew members. The suit can also provide cooling for astronauts during normal flight. For the
Demo-1 mission, a test dummy nicknamed Ripley was fitted with the spacesuit and sensors. The spacesuit is made from
Nomex
Nomex is a flame-resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967.
Properties
Nomex and related aramid polymers are related to nylon, but have aromatic backbones, and hence are more rigid and mo ...
, a fire retardant fabric similar to
Kevlar
Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...
.
The spacecraft's design was unveiled on 29 May 2014, during a press event at
SpaceX headquarters in
Hawthorne, California
Hawthorne is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city region commonly called the South Bay. As of the 2020 US census, Hawthorne had a population of 88,0 ...
.
In October 2014, NASA selected the Dragon spacecraft as one of the candidates to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station, under the
Commercial Crew Program
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Sp ...
.
[ In March 2022, SpaceX President ]Gwynne Shotwell
Gwynne Shotwell ( Rowley; born November 23, 1963) is an American businesswoman and engineer. She is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, an American space transportation company, where she is responsible for day-to-day operation ...
told Reuters that "We are finishing our final (capsule), but we still are manufacturing components, because we'll be refurbishing".
SpaceX's CCtCap contract values each seat on a Crew Dragon flight to be between US$60–67 million, while the face value of each seat has been estimated by NASA's Office of Inspector General
In the United States, Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to ma ...
(OIG) to be around US$55 million. This contrasts with the 2014 Soyuz launch price of US$76 million per seat for NASA astronauts. In case of private astronauts riding on Crew Dragon, SpaceX gives them Crew Dragon Astronaut Wings.
Cargo Dragon
Although Dragon 2 was intended from the earliest design concept to carry crew, or with fewer seats, both crew and cargo, a second round of multi-year cargo supply contracts (also known as CRS-2) was solicited by NASA in 2014, to supply the ISS in 2020–2024. This led to SpaceX proposing a separately-named model, Cargo Dragon, for the NASA flights. SpaceX won a contract award for Cargo Dragon as a result of the CRS-2 bid competition, with contracts awarded in January 2016 for six flights.
Cargo Dragons are different from the crewed variant by launching without seats, cockpit controls, astronaut life support systems, or SuperDraco
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escap ...
abort engines.[ ] Cargo Dragon improves on many aspects of the original Dragon design, including the recovery and refurbishment process. SpaceX plans to fly each Cargo Dragon capsule up to five times.
Design
Dragon 2 includes the following features:
Dragon 2 is partially reusable, potentially resulting in a significant cost reduction. After earlier plans of SpaceX to use new capsules for every crewed flight for NASA both agreed to reuse Crew Dragon capsules for NASA flights. Cargo Dragon can carry to the ISS; Crew Dragon has a capacity of seven astronauts (only four seats are used for NASA missions). Above the seats, there is a three-screen control panel, a toilet (with privacy curtain), and the docking hatch. Ocean landings are accomplished with four main parachutes in both variants. The parachute system was fully redesigned from the one used in the prior Dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
capsule, due to the need to deploy the parachutes under a variety of launch abort scenarios.[
Crew Dragon has eight side-mounted ]SuperDraco
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escap ...
engines, clustered in redundant pairs in four engine pods, with each engine able to produce of thrust to be used for launch aborts.[ Each pod also contains four Draco thrusters that can be used for attitude control and orbital maneuvers. The SuperDraco engine combustion chamber is printed of ]Inconel
Inconel is a registered trademark of Special Metals Corporation for a family of austenitic nickel-chromium-based superalloys.
Inconel alloys are oxidation-corrosion-resistant materials well suited for service in extreme environments subjected t ...
, an alloy of nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
and iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
, using a process of direct metal laser sintering
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technique that uses a laser as the power and heat source to sinter powdered material (typically nylon or polyamide), aiming the laser automatically at points in space defined b ...
. Engines are contained in a protective nacelle
A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...
to prevent fault propagation if an engine fails.
Once in orbit, Dragon 2 is able to autonomously dock to the ISS. Dragon 1 was berthed using the Canadarm2
The Mobile Servicing System (MSS), is a robotic system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Launched to the ISS in 2001, it plays a key role in station assembly and maintenance; it moves equipment and supplies around the station, supp ...
robotic arm, requiring substantially more involvement from ISS crew. Pilots of Crew Dragon retain the ability to dock
A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...
the spacecraft using manual controls interfaced with a static tablet-like computer. The spacecraft can be operated in full vacuum
A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...
, and "the crew will wear SpaceX-designed space suit
A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...
s to protect them from a rapid cabin depressurization emergency event". Also, the spacecraft will be able to return safely if a leak occurs "of up to an equivalent orifice of in diameter".[
Propellant and helium pressurant for both launch aborts and on-orbit maneuvering is contained in ]composite
Composite or compositing may refer to:
Materials
* Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances
** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts
** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials
...
-carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
-overwrap titanium spherical tanks. A PICA-X heat shield protects the capsule during reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the ...
. A reusable nose cone
A nose cone is the conically shaped forwardmost section of a rocket, guided missile or aircraft, designed to modulate oncoming airflow behaviors and minimize aerodynamic drag. Nose cones are also designed for submerged watercraft such a ...
"protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent and reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the ...
",[ pivoting on a hinge to enable in-space docking and returning to the covered position for reentry and future launches.][
The trunk is the third structural element of the spacecraft, containing ]solar panels
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...
, heat-removal radiators, and fins to provide aerodynamic stability during emergency aborts.[ ]
The previous Cargo Dragon's deployable solar arrays have been eliminated and are now built into the trunk itself. This increases volume space, reduces the number of mechanisms on the vehicle and further increases reliability.
Announced on 29 August 2021 during the CRS-23 launch is a new feature called Extend-the-Lab installed in the Cargo Dragon. "Our new Cargo Dragon vehicle is also able to act as a laboratory in the advancement of science and research. We call this capability Extend-the-Lab. It allows some powered payloads to remain on Dragon for experimentation during the duration of the mission. This is especially helpful when there is limited to no space on station for additional science. And it also helps cut down the amount of time the crew has to move payloads in and out of Dragon. For CRS-23 there are 3 Extend-the-Lab payloads launching with the mission, and once docked, a 4th which is currently already on the space station will be added to Dragon".
For missions not involving docking, the capsule docking adapter which is normally used to dock with the International Space Station can be replaced by a domed plexiglass window. This provides panoramic views of space and the Earth like the Cupola Module on the ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...
to provide interest and make up space left after removal of the docking adapter during flight. The dome's first use was on the Inspiration4
Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UTC from Kennedy S ...
flight.
Crewed flights
Dragon is useful to both commercial and government customers. SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace
Bigelow Aerospace is an American aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactures and develops expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998, and is based in North Las Vegas, Nevada. ...
were working together to support round-trip transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
of commercial passengers to low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
(LEO) destinations, but the plan was canceled. Instead Axiom launches commercial astronauts to the Space Station and intends to eventually launch to their own private space station. NASA flights to the ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...
will only have four astronauts, with the added payload mass and volume used to carry pressurized cargo.
On 16 September 2014, NASA announced that SpaceX and Boeing had been selected to provide crew transportation to the ISS. SpaceX will receive US$2.6 billion under this contract. Dragon was the less expensive proposal, but NASA's William H. Gerstenmaier considered the CST-100
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially SpaceX Crew-1
SpaceX Crew-1 (was also known as USCV-1 or simply Crew-1) was the first operational crewed flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' spacecraft. It was also the second crewed orbital flight l ...
, was on 16 November 2020 after several test flights while the CST-100 suffered several problems and delays, with its first operational flight slipped to no earlier than February 2023.
In a departure from the prior NASA practice, where construction contracts with commercial firms led to direct NASA operation of the spacecraft, NASA is purchasing space transport services from SpaceX, including construction, launch, and operation of the Dragon 2.
In August 2018, NASA and SpaceX agreed on the loading procedures for propellants
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
, vehicle fluids and crew. High-pressure helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
will be loaded first, followed by the passengers approximately two hours prior to scheduled launch; the ground crew will then depart the launch pad and move to a safe distance. The launch escape system
A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, suc ...
will be activated approximately 40 minutes prior to launch, with propellant loading commencing several minutes later.[ ]
The first automated test mission launched to the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
(ISS) on 2 March 2019.[ ] After schedule slips,[ ] the first crewed flight launched on 30 May 2020 with the launch of the Demo-2
Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Demonstration Mission-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named '' Endeavour'', launched on 30 May 2020 on a Falcon 9 booster, and carr ...
mission.
In June 2019, Bigelow Space Operations announced it had reserved with SpaceX up to four missions of four passengers each to ISS as early as 2020 and planned to sell them for around US$52 million per seat. These plans were canceled by September 2019.
On 18 February 2020, building on development for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, Space Adventures announced an agreement with SpaceX to fly up to four paying customers on a standalone mission aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft in late 2021 or 2022 that could reach an altitude two-to-three times higher than the International Space Station. However, by October 2021 the contract had expired, but a similar mission Polaris Dawn
Polaris Dawn is a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, scheduled to launch no earlier than March 2023. The flight will be using the Crew Dragon capsule, and is the fir ...
will be flown on which the first private spacewalk
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...
shall be conducted.
Testing
SpaceX planned a series of four flight tests for the Crew Dragon: a "pad abort" test
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
, an uncrewed orbital flight to the ISS, an in-flight abort test, and finally a 14-day crewed demonstration mission to the ISS, which was initially planned for July 2019, but after a Dragon capsule explosion, was delayed to May 2020.
Pad abort and hover tests
The pad abort test was conducted successfully on 6 May 2015 at SpaceX's leased SLC-40
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), previously Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) is a launch pad for rockets located at the north end of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
The launch pad was used by the United States Air Force for 55 Titan III ...
. Dragon landed safely in the ocean to the east of the launchpad 99 seconds after ignition of the SuperDraco engines. While a flight-like Dragon 2 and trunk were used for the pad abort test, they rested atop a truss structure for the test rather than a full Falcon 9 rocket. A crash test dummy
A crash test dummy, or simply dummy, is a full-scale anthropomorphic test device (ATD) that simulates the dimensions, weight proportions and articulation of the human body during a traffic collision. Dummies are used by researchers, automobi ...
embedded with a suite of sensors was placed inside the test vehicle to record acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...
loads and forces at the crew seat, while the remaining six seats were loaded with weights to simulate full-passenger-load weight. The test objective was to demonstrate sufficient total impulse
Impulse or Impulsive may refer to:
Science
* Impulse (physics), in mechanics, the change of momentum of an object; the integral of a force with respect to time
* Impulse noise (disambiguation)
* Specific impulse, the change in momentum per uni ...
, thrust
Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that syst ...
and controllability Controllability is an important property of a control system, and the controllability property plays a crucial role in many control problems, such as stabilization of unstable systems by feedback, or optimal control.
Controllability and observabil ...
to conduct a safe pad abort. A fuel mixture ratio issue was detected after the flight in one of the eight SuperDraco engines causing it to under perform, but did not materially affect the flight.
On 24 November 2015, SpaceX conducted a test of Dragon 2's hovering abilities at the firm's rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas
McGregor is a city in McLennan and Coryell counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 4,987 at the 2010 census.
McGregor lies in two counties, as well as two metropolitan areas. The McLennan County portion of the city is part of the ...
. In a video, the spacecraft is shown suspended by a hoisting cable and igniting its SuperDraco
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escap ...
engines to hover for about 5 seconds, balancing on its 8 engines firing at reduced thrust to compensate exactly for gravity. The test vehicle was the same capsule that performed the pad abort test earlier in 2015; it was nicknamed DragonFly
A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...
.
Demo-1: Orbital flight test
In 2015, NASA named its first Commercial Crew astronaut cadre of four veteran astronauts to work with SpaceX and Boeing – Robert Behnken
Robert Louis Behnken (; born July 28, 1970, in St. Ann, Missouri) is a NASA astronaut, engineer, and former Chief of the Astronaut Office.
Behnken holds a Ph.D in mechanical engineering and the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force, where he se ...
, Eric Boe
Eric Allen Boe (born October 1, 1964) is a retired United States Air Force fighter pilot, Colonel, test pilot, and a current, active NASA astronaut. He flew as the pilot of Space Shuttle missions STS-126 and STS-133.
Early life and education ...
, Sunita Williams
Sunita Lyn Williams (born September 19, 1965) is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who formerly held the records for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes). Williams was ...
, and Douglas Hurley
Douglas Gerald Hurley (born October 21, 1966) is an American engineer, former Marine Corps pilot and former NASA astronaut. He piloted Space Shuttle missions STS-127 (July 2009) and STS-135 (July 2011), the final flight of the Space Shuttle pro ...
. The Demo-1 mission completed the last milestone of the Commercial Crew Development program, paving the way to starting commercial services under an upcoming ISS Crew Transportation Services contract. On 3 August 2018, NASA announced the crew for the DM-2 mission.[ ] The crew of two consisted of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken
Robert Louis Behnken (; born July 28, 1970, in St. Ann, Missouri) is a NASA astronaut, engineer, and former Chief of the Astronaut Office.
Behnken holds a Ph.D in mechanical engineering and the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force, where he s ...
and Doug Hurley
Douglas Gerald Hurley (born October 21, 1966) is an American engineer, former Marine Corps pilot and former NASA astronaut. He piloted Space Shuttle missions STS-127 (July 2009) and STS-135 (July 2011), the final flight of the Space Shuttle pro ...
. Behnken previously flew as mission specialist on the STS-123 and the STS-130 missions. Hurley previously flew as a pilot on the STS-127
STS-127 ( ISS assembly flight 2J/A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was the twenty-third flight of . The primary purpose of the STS-127 mission was to deliver and install the final two components of t ...
mission and on the final Space Shuttle mission, the STS-135
STS-135 ( ISS assembly flight ULF7) was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter ''Atlantis'' and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 la ...
mission.
The first orbital test of Crew Dragon was an uncrewed mission, officially designated "Crew Demo-1" and launched on 2 March 2019.[ ] The spacecraft tested the approach and automated docking procedures with the ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...
,[ ] remained docked until 8 March 2019, then conducted the full re-entry, splashdown and recovery steps to qualify for a crewed mission. Life-support systems were monitored all along the test flight. The same capsule was planned to be re-used in June 2019 for an in-flight abort test before it exploded on 20 April 2019.
Explosion during testing
On 20 April 2019, the Crew Dragon capsule used in the Demo-1 mission was destroyed in an explosion during static fire testing at the Landing Zone 1
Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for recovering components of SpaceX's VTVL reusable launch vehicles. LZ-1 and LZ-2 were built on land le ...
facility. On the day of the explosion, the initial testing of the Crew Dragon's Draco thrusters was successful, with the anomaly occurring during the test of the SuperDraco
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escap ...
abort system.
Telemetry, high-speed camera footage, and analysis of recovered debris indicate the problem occurred when a small amount of dinitrogen tetroxide
Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...
leaked into a helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
line used to pressurize the propellant tanks. The leakage apparently occurred during pre-test processing. As a result, the pressurization of the system 100 ms before firing damaged a check valve and resulted in the explosion.
Since the destroyed capsule had been slated for use in the upcoming in-flight abort test, the explosion and investigation delayed that test and the subsequent crewed orbital test.
The SuperDraco engine test that failed on 20 April 2019 was repeated successfully on 13 November 2019. The full duration static fire test of Crew Dragon's launch escape system took place at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at 20:08 UTC. The test was successful, showing that the modifications made to the vehicle to prevent a failure like the one that happened 20 April 2019 were successful. The vehicle used for this ground test would also be used for the following in-flight abort test.
Some of the modifications are:
* Replacement of the valves with burst disc
A rupture disk, also known as a pressure safety disc, burst disc, bursting disc, or burst diaphragm, is a non-reclosing pressure relief safety device that, in most uses, protects a pressure vessel, equipment or system from overpressurization ...
s: Unlike valves, burst discs are designed for single use.
* Addition of flaps on each SuperDraco in order to reseal the thrusters prior to splashdown in the ocean, preventing water intrusion.
In-flight abort test
The Crew Dragon in-flight abort test was launched on 19 January 2020 at 15:30 UTC from LC-39A
Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...
on a suborbital
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital r ...
trajectory to conduct a separation and abort scenario in the troposphere
The troposphere is the first and lowest layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, and contains 75% of the total mass of the planetary atmosphere, 99% of the total mass of water vapour and aerosols, and is where most weather phenomena occur. From ...
at transonic
Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transonic ...
velocities shortly after passing through max Q, where the vehicle experiences maximum aerodynamic pressure. The Dragon 2 used its SuperDraco
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escap ...
abort engines to push itself away from the Falcon 9 after an intentional premature engine cutoff, after which the Falcon was destroyed by aerodynamic forces. The Dragon followed its suborbital trajectory to apogee, at which point the spacecraft's trunk was jettisoned. The smaller Draco
Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon.
Draco or Drako may also refer to:
People
* Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived
* ...
engines were then used to orient the vehicle for the descent. All major functions were executed, including separation, engine firings, parachute deployment, and landing. Dragon 2 splashed down at 15:38:54 UTC just off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The test objective was to demonstrate the ability to safely move away from the ascending rocket under the most challenging atmospheric conditions of the flight trajectory, imposing the worst structural stress of a real flight on the rocket and spacecraft.[ The abort test was performed using a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket with a fully fueled second stage with a mass simulator replacing the ]Merlin
Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...
engine.
Earlier, this test had been scheduled before the uncrewed orbital test, however, SpaceX and NASA considered it safer to use a flight representative capsule rather than the test article from the pad abort test.[ ]
This test was previously planned to use the capsule C204 from Demo-1, however, C204 was destroyed in an explosion during a static fire testing on 20 April 2019. Capsule C205, originally planned for Demo-2 was used for the In-Flight Abort Test with C206 being planned for use during Demo-2. This was the final flight test of the spacecraft before it began carrying astronauts to the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Prior to the flight test, teams completed launch day procedures for the first crewed flight test, from suit-up to launch pad operations. The joint teams conducted full data reviews that needed to be completed prior to NASA astronauts flying on the system during SpaceX's Demo-2 mission.[ ]
Demo-2: crewed orbital flight test
On 17 April 2020, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
James Frederick Bridenstine (born June 15, 1975) is an American military officer and politician who served as the 13th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Bridenstine was the United States representative fo ...
announced the first crewed Crew Dragon Demo-2
Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Demonstration Mission-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named '' Endeavour'', launched on 30 May 2020 on a Falcon 9 booster, and carr ...
to the International Space Station would launch on 27 May 2020. Astronauts Bob Behnken
Robert Louis Behnken (; born July 28, 1970, in St. Ann, Missouri) is a NASA astronaut, engineer, and former Chief of the Astronaut Office.
Behnken holds a Ph.D in mechanical engineering and the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force, where he s ...
and Doug Hurley
Douglas Gerald Hurley (born October 21, 1966) is an American engineer, former Marine Corps pilot and former NASA astronaut. He piloted Space Shuttle missions STS-127 (July 2009) and STS-135 (July 2011), the final flight of the Space Shuttle pro ...
crewed the mission, marking the first crewed launch to the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
from U.S. soil since STS-135
STS-135 ( ISS assembly flight ULF7) was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter ''Atlantis'' and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 la ...
in July 2011. The original launch was postponed to 30 May 2020 due to weather conditions at the launch site. The second launch attempt was successful, with capsule C206, later named '' Endeavour'' by the crew, launching on 30 May 2020 19:22 UTC. The capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
on 31 May 2020 at 14:27 UTC. On 2 August 2020, Crew Dragon undocked and splashed-down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launching in the Dragon 2 spacecraft was described by astronaut Bob Behnken as "smooth off the pad" but "we were definitely driving and riding a dragon all the way up ... a little bit less g's han the Space Shuttlebut more 'alive' is probably the best way I would describe it".
Regarding descent in the spacecraft, Behnken stated, "Once we descended a little bit into the atmosphere, Dragon really came alive. It started to fire thrusters and keep us pointed in the appropriate direction. The atmosphere starts to make noise—you can hear that rumble outside the vehicle. And as the vehicle tries to control, you feel a little bit of that shimmy in your body. ... We could feel those small rolls and pitches and yaws—all those little motions were things we picked up on inside the vehicle. ... All the separation events, from the trunk separation through the parachute firings, were very much like getting hit in the back of the chair with a baseball bat ... pretty light for the trunk separation but with the parachutes it was a pretty significant jolt".
List of vehicles
List of flights
''List includes only completed or currently manifested missions. Launch dates are listed in UTC.''
Crew Dragon flights
Cargo Dragon flights
NASA has ordered six additional flights, CRS-30 to CRS-35, to resupply the ISS through 2026.
Timeline
Crew Dragon has flown five operational CCP missions and four other missions. Cargo Dragon has flown six missions.
Cancelled flights
Space Adventures
Space Adventures, Inc. is an American space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. Its offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights (with the option to participate in a spacewalk), and other spacefl ...
contracted SpaceX for a five-day, high elliptic orbit
In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics, an elliptic orbit or elliptical orbit is a Kepler orbit with an eccentricity of less than 1; this includes the special case of a circular orbit, with eccentricity equal to 0. In a stricter sense, it ...
space tourism
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.
During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...
mission with a Crew Dragon in 2022, which planned to send four crew members to an altitude over twice the height of the ISS, and higher than the current altitude record for an orbital crewed spacecraft, set by the Gemini 11
Gemini 11 (officially Gemini XI) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was the ninth crewed spaceflight mission of NASA's Project Gemini, which flew from September 12 to 15, 1966. It was the 17th crewed ...
mission in 1966. In October 2021, Space Adventures stated that the contract had expired and would not be executed, but left open the possibility of a partnership with SpaceX in the future. The goals of the Space Adventures flight are aimed for by Polaris Dawn
Polaris Dawn is a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, scheduled to launch no earlier than March 2023. The flight will be using the Crew Dragon capsule, and is the fir ...
now, to be flown no earlier than March 2023.
See also
* Comparison of crewed space vehicles A number of different spacecraft have been used to carry people to and from outer space.
Table code key
Orbital space vehicles
Suborbital space vehicles
Footnotes
See also
*Cargo spacecraft (robotic resupply spacecraft)
*Comparison of o ...
* Comparison of space station cargo vehicles
Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...
* List of crewed spacecraft
This is a list of all crewed spacecraft types that have flown into space, including sub-orbital flights above 80 km, Space Stations that have been visited by at least one crew, and spacecraft currently planned to operate with crew in the f ...
*
Notes
References
External links
Real-time orbital tracking
uphere.space
Real-time orbital tracking
isstracker.pl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon (spacecraft)
SpaceX Dragon 2
SpaceX spacecraft
Crewed spacecraft
Vehicles introduced in 2019
Supply vehicles for the International Space Station
Reusable spacecraft
SpaceX related lists