SpaceX Dragon 1 is a class of fourteen partially reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. The spacecraft flew 23 missions between 2010 and 2020. Dragon was launched into orbit by the company's Falcon 9 launch vehicle to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It was succeeded by the Dragon 2 spacecraft which has both crewed and cargo versions.
During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit. On May 25, 2012, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and attach to the ISS.[4][5] SpaceX contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012.[6][7] With the Dragon spacecraft and the Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus, NASA sought to increase its partnerships with domestic commercial aviation and aeronautics industry.[8]
On June 3, 2017, the C106 capsule, largely assembled from previously flown components from the CRS-4 mission in September 2014, was launched again for the first time on CRS-11, after being refurbished.[9]
The last flight of the Dragon 1 spacecraft launched March 7, 2020 (UTC) on cargo resupply mission (CRS-20) to International Space Station (ISS). This was the last mission of SpaceX's first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract, and marked the retirement of the Dragon 1 fleet. Further SpaceX commercial resupply flights to ISS under the second Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) program use the Cargo Dragon variant of the Dragon 2 spacecraft, which is capable of fully automated docking with the ISS.[10]
History
SpaceX began developing the Dragon spacecraft in late 2004, making a public announcement in 2006 with a plan of entering service in 2009. Also in 2006, SpaceX won a contract to use Dragon for commercial resupply services to the International Space Station for the American federal space agency, NASA.
NASA ISS resupply contract
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
In 2005, NASA solicited proposals for a commercial ISS resupply cargo vehicle to replace the then-soon-to-be-retired Space Shuttle, through its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) development program. The Dragon space capsule was a part of SpaceX's proposal, submitted to NASA in March 2006. SpaceX's COTS proposal was issued as part of a team, which also included MD Robotics, the Canadian company that had built the ISS's Canadarm2.
On August 18, 2006, NASA announced that SpaceX had been chosen, along with Kistler Aerospace, to develop cargo launch services for the ISS.[11]
Development funding
In 2014, SpaceX released the total combined development costs for both the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and the Dragon capsule. NASA provided US$396 million while SpaceX provided over US$450 million to fund both development efforts.[53]
Production
In December 2010, the SpaceX production line was reported to be manufacturing one new Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket every three months. Elon Musk stated in a 2010 interview that he planned to increase production turnover to one Dragon every six weeks by 2012.[54] Composite materials are extensively used in the spacecraft's manufacture to reduce weight and improve structural strength.[55]
By September 2013, SpaceX total manufacturing space had increased to nearly 1000000 ft2 and the factory had six Dragons in various stages of production. SpaceX published a photograph showing the six, including the next four NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) mission Dragons (CRS-3, CRS-4, CRS-5, CRS-6) plus the drop-test Dragon, and the pad-abort Dragon weldment for commercial crew program.[56]
Design
The Dragon spacecraft consists of a nose-cone cap, a conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule, and an unpressurized cargo-carrier trunk equipped with two solar arrays.[57] The capsule uses a PICA-X heat shield, based on a proprietary variant of NASA's Phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) material, designed to protect the capsule during Earth atmospheric entry, even at high return velocities from Lunar and Martian missions.[58][59] The Dragon capsule is re-usable, and can fly multiple missions.[57] The trunk is not recoverable; it separates from the capsule before re-entry and burns up in Earth's atmosphere.[60] The trunk section, which carries the spacecraft's solar panels and allows the transport of unpressurized cargo to the ISS, was first used for cargo on the
Variants and derivatives
DragonLab
SpaceX planned to fly the Dragon spacecraft in a free-flying configuration, known as DragonLab.[57] Its subsystems include propulsion, power, thermal and environmental control (ECLSS), avionics, communications, thermal protection, flight software, guidance and navigation systems, and entry, descent, landing, and recovery gear.[71] It has a total combined upmass of 6000 kg upon launch, and a maximum downmass of 3000 kg when returning to Earth.[71] In November 2014, there were two DragonLab missions listed on the SpaceX launch manifest: one in 2016 and another in 2018.[72] However, these missions were removed from the manifest in early 2017, with no official SpaceX statement.[73]
List of vehicles
List of missions
Specifications
DragonLab
The following specifications are published by SpaceX for the non-NASA, non-ISS commercial flights of the refurbished Dragon capsules, listed as "DragonLab" flights on the SpaceX manifest. The specifications for the NASA-contracted Dragon Cargo were not included in the 2009 DragonLab datasheet.[71]
See also
- Comparison of space station cargo vehicles
- List of human spaceflight programs
- Space Shuttle successors
- Cargo Dragon C208 and C209
Comparable vehicles
Cargo
Crew
Cargo
Crew
External links
References
- "Audit Of Commercial Resupply Services to The International Space Station", Office of Inspector General, page 9, https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-18-016.pdf^
- SpaceX Dragon specs retrieved May 15, 2007^
- SpaceX Brochure – 2008 retrieved December 9, 2010^