Dragon spacecraft[edit]
The SpaceX's
Crew Dragon spacecraft, designed to deliver crew to and from the International Space Station as part of the
Commercial Crew Program.
In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through the end of the decade.
[134] The Dragon is a conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule which is capable of carrying cargo or up to seven astronauts into orbit and beyond.
[135][135] In 2006, NASA announced that the company was one of two selected to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the ISS under the COTS program.
[136] SpaceX demonstrated cargo resupply and eventually crew transportation services using the Dragon.
[119] The first flight of a Dragon structural test article took place in June 2010, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the maiden flight of the
Falcon 9 launch vehicle; the
mock-up Dragon lacked avionics, heat shield, and other key elements normally required of a fully operational spacecraft but contained all the necessary characteristics to validate the flight performance of the launch vehicle.
[137] An operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard
COTS Demo Flight 1, the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives.
[138] In 2012, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station,
[119] and has since been conducting regular resupply services to the ISS.
[139]
In April 2011, NASA issued a $75 million contract, as part of its second-round
commercial crew development (CCDev) program, for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle to the ISS.
[140] In August 2012, NASA awarded SpaceX a firm, fixed-price
SAA with the objective of producing a detailed design of the entire crew transportation system. This contract includes numerous key technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions following system certification.
[141] The fully autonomous Crew Dragon spacecraft is expected to be one of the safest crewed spacecraft systems. Reusable in nature, the Crew Dragon will offer savings to NASA.
[141] SpaceX conducted a test of an empty Crew Dragon to ISS in early 2019, and later in the year they plan to launch a crewed Dragon which will send US astronauts to the ISS for the first time since the retirement of the
Space Shuttle.
[142][143] In February 2017, SpaceX announced that two would-be
space tourists had put down "significant deposits" for a mission which would see the two tourists fly on board a Dragon capsule around the Moon and back again.
In addition to SpaceX's privately funded plans for an eventual
Mars mission, NASA
Ames Research Center had developed a concept called
Red Dragon: a low-cost Mars mission that would use
Falcon Heavy as the launch vehicle and trans-Martian injection vehicle, and the
Dragon capsule to
enter the
Martian atmosphere. The concept was originally envisioned for launch in 2018 as a
NASA Discovery mission, then alternatively for 2022.
[144] The objectives of the mission would be return the samples from Mars to Earth at a fraction of the cost of the NASA own return-sample mission now projected at 6 billion dollars.
[144][145] In September 2017,
Elon Musk released first prototype images of their space suits to be used in future missions. The suit is in testing phase and it is designed to cope with 2 atm (200 kPa; 29 psi) pressure in vacuum.
[146][147] The Crew Dragon spacecraft was first sent to space on March 2, 2019.
On March 27, 2020, SpaceX revealed the Dragon XL resupply spacecraft to carry pressurized and unpressurized cargo, experiments and other supplies to NASA's planned
Lunar Gateway under a
Gateway Logistics Services (GLS) contract.
[148] The equipment delivered by Dragon XL missions could include sample collection materials, spacesuits and other items astronauts may need on the Gateway and on the surface of the Moon, according to NASA. It will launch on SpaceX
Falcon Heavy rockets from pad 39A at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Dragon XL will stay at the Gateway for six to 12 months at a time, when research payloads inside and outside the cargo vessel could be operated remotely, even when crews are not present.
[149] Its payload capacity is expected to be more than 5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb) to lunar orbit.
[150]
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