reusable spacecraft by SpaceX From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SpaceX Dragon 2 is a class of reusable spacecraft created by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX as the replacement to the Dragon 1 cargo spacecraft.
The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and returns to Earth via an ocean splashdown. The spacecraft can dock itself to the International Space Station (ISS) instead of being berthed.
It has two versions; Crew Dragon, a human-rated capsule capable of carrying up to seven astronauts, and Cargo Dragon, an updated replacement for the original Dragon spacecraft.[1]
Crew Dragon is equipped with an integrated launch escape system in a set of four side thruster pods with two SuperDraco engines each. The spacecraft features redesigned solar arrays.
SpaceX plans to replace Dragon 2 with Starship.
Launch dates are listed in UTC.
Mission | Space capsule[2] | Launch date | Landing date | Description | Crew | Outcome | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Test flights | |||||||
Pad Abort Test | DragonFly (prototype) | 6 May 2015 | 6 May 2015 | The test showed that the space capsule can escape quickly (from the rocket) if the rocket has a problem while it is still on the ground. The test was at Cape Canaveral, Florida.[3] | No crew | Success | |
Demo-1 | C204 | 2 March 2019[4] | 8 March 2019 | Test flight of the capsule - without people in the capsule. | No crew | Success | |
In-Flight Abort Test | C205 | 19 January 2020[5] | 19 January 2020 | [6] | No crew | Success | |
Demo-2 | Endeavour | 30 May 2020[7][8] | 2 August 2020 | Success | |||
8 April 2022 to 25 April 2022: Axiom-1 mission used space capsule Resilience. The crew was
The mission was Crew-5.
Crew Dragon has eight SuperDraco engines, with each engine able to produce 71 kN (16,000 lbf) of thrust to be used for launch aborts (or giving up a a launch - after it has already started).[37] Each pod also contains four Draco thrusters that can be used for attitude control and orbital maneuvers (or using engines while already in an orbit). The SuperDraco engine combustion chamber is printed of Inconel, an alloy of nickel and iron, using a process of direct metal laser sintering.
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