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SpaceX Dragon




Dragon is a reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. Dragon is launched into orbit by the company's Falcon 9 two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle.
During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit.[2] On 25 May 2012, a cargo variant of Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and attach to the International Space Station (ISS).[10][11][12] SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012.[13][14][15][16] With the Dragon spacecraft  and the Orbital ATK Cygnus, NASA seeks to increase its partnerships with domestic commercial aviation and aeronautics industry.[17]
On 3 June 2017, the CRS-11 capsule, largely assembled from previously flown components from the CRS-4 mission in September 2014, was launched again for the first time, with the hull, structural elements, thrusters, harnesses, propellant tanks, plumbing and many of the avionics reused while the heat shield, batteries and components exposed to sea water upon splashdown for recovery were replaced.[18]
SpaceX has developed a second version called Dragon 2, which includes the capability to transport people. Flight testing is scheduled to complete in the first half of 2019 with the first flight of astronauts, on a mission contracted to NASA, scheduled to occur later the same year.[19]
Name
SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk, named the spacecraft after the 1963 song "Puff, the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary, reportedly as a response to critics who considered his spaceflight projects impossible.[20]
History
SpaceX began developing the Dragon spacecraft in late 2004, making a public announcement in 2006 with a plan of entering service in 2009.[21] Also in 2006, SpaceX won a contract to use the Dragon spacecraft for commercially supplied resupply services to the International Space Station for the American federal space agency, NASA.[22]
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 spacecraft 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 18 August 2006, NASA announced that SpaceX had been chosen, along with Kistler Aerospace, to develop cargo launch services for the ISS.[22] The initial plan called for three demonstration flights of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to be conducted between 2008 and 2010.[23][24] SpaceX and Kistler were to receive up to $278 million and $207 million respectively,[24] if they met all NASA milestones, but Kistler failed to meet its obligations, and its contract was terminated in 2007.[25] NASA later re-awarded Kistler's contract to Orbital Sciences.[25][26]
Commercial Resupply Services Phase 1
On 23 December 2008, NASA awarded a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract to SpaceX, with contract options that could potentially increase the maximum contract value to $3.1 billion.[27] The contract called for 12 flights, with an overall minimum of 20,000kg (44,000lb) of cargo to be carried to the ISS.[27]
On 23 February 2009, SpaceX announced that its chosen phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator heat shield material, PICA-X, had passed heat stress tests in preparation for Dragon's maiden launch.[28][29] The primary proximity-operations sensor for the Dragon spacecraft, the DragonEye, was tested in early 2009 during the STS-127 mission, when it was mounted near the docking port of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and used while the Shuttle approached the International Space Station. The DragonEye's Lidar and thermography (thermal imaging) abilities were both tested successfully.[30][31] The COTS UHF Communication Unit (CUCU) and Crew Command Panel (CCP) were delivered to the ISS during the late 2009 STS-129 mission.[32] The CUCU allows the ISS to communicate with Dragon and the CCP allows ISS crew members to issue basic commands to Dragon.[32] In summer 2009, SpaceX hired former NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox as vice president of their new Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Department, in preparation for crews using the spacecraft.[33]
As a condition of the NASA CRS contract, SpaceX analyzed the orbital radiation environment on all Dragon systems, and how the spacecraft would respond to spurious radiation events. That analysis and the Dragon design – which uses an overall fault-tolerant triple-redundant computer architecture, rather than individual radiation hardening of each computer processor – was reviewed by independent experts before being approved by NASA for the cargo flights.[34]
During March, 2015, it was announced that SpaceX had been awarded an additional three missions under Commercial Resupply Services Phase 1.[35] These additional missions are SpaceX CRS-13, SpaceX CRS-14 and SpaceX CRS-15 and would cover the cargo needs of 2017.
On 24 February 2016, SpaceNews disclosed that SpaceX had been awarded a further five missions under Commercial Resupply Services Phase 1.[36] This additional tranche of missions had SpaceX CRS-16 and SpaceX CRS-17 manifested for FY2017 while SpaceX CRS-18, SpaceX CRS-19 and SpaceX CRS-20 and were notionally manifested for FY2018.
Commercial Resupply Services Phase 2
The Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract definition/solicitation period commenced in 2014 and a result announced on 14 January 2016. The CRS2 launches are expected to commence in 2019, and extend to at least 2024. On 14 January 2016, NASA announced that three companies had been awarded contracts for a minimum of six launches each. SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corporation won contracts.[37]
[38] The maximum potential value of all the contracts was indicated to be $14Bn but the minimum requirements would be considerably less. No further financial information was disclosed. The missions involved would be from late 2019 through to 2024.
Demonstration flights




The first flight of the Falcon 9, a private flight, occurred in June 2010 and launched a stripped-down version of the Dragon capsule. This Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit had initially been used as a ground test bed to validate several of the capsule's systems. During the flight, the unit's primary mission was to relay aerodynamic data captured during the ascent.[39][40] It was not designed to survive re-entry, and did not.
NASA contracted for three test flights from SpaceX, but later reduced that number to two.
The first Dragon spacecraft launched on its first mission – contracted to NASA as COTS Demo Flight 1 – on 8 December 2010, and was successfully recovered following re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. The mission also marked the second flight of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.[41] The DragonEye sensor flew again on STS-133 in February 2011 for further on-orbit testing.[42]
In November 2010, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued a re-entry license for the Dragon capsule, the first such license ever awarded to a commercial vehicle.[43]
The second Dragon flight, also contracted to NASA as a demonstration mission, launched successfully on 22 May 2012, after NASA had approved SpaceX's proposal to combine the COTS 2 and 3 mission objectives into a single Falcon 9/Dragon flight, renamed COTS 2+.[3][44] Dragon conducted orbital tests of its navigation systems and abort procedures, before being grappled by the ISS' Canadarm2 and successfully berthing with the station on 25 May to offload its cargo.[10][45][46][47][48] Dragon returned to Earth on 31 May 2012, landing as scheduled in the Pacific Ocean, and was again successfully recovered.[49][50]
On 23 August 2012, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that SpaceX had completed all required milestones under the COTS contract, and was cleared to begin operational resupply missions to the ISS.[51]
Returning research materials from orbit
Dragon spacecrafts can return to Earth 3,500kg (7,700lb), which can be all unpressurized disposal mass or up to 3,000kg (6,600lb) of return pressurized cargo from the ISS,[6]  and is the only current spacecraft capable of returning to Earth with a significant amount of cargo. Other than the Russian Soyuz crew capsule, Dragon is the only currently operating spacecraft designed to survive re-entry. Because Dragon allows for the return of critical materials to researchers in as little as 48 hours from splashdown, it opens the possibility of new experiments on ISS that can produce materials for later analysis on ground using more sophisticated instrumentation.  For example, CRS-12 returned mice that have spent time in orbit which will help give insight into how microgravity impacts blood vessels in both the brain and eyes, and in determining how arthritis develops.[52]
Operational flights

Dragon was launched on its first operational CRS flight on 8 October 2012,[13] and completed the mission successfully on 28 October.[53] NASA initially contracted SpaceX for 12 operational missions, and later extended the CRS contract with 8 more flights, bringing the total to 20 launches until 2019. In 2016, a new batch of 6 missions under the CRS2 contract was assigned to SpaceX; those missions are scheduled to be launched between 2020 and 2024.
Reuse of previously-flown capsules
SpaceX CRS-11, SpaceX's eleventh CRS mission, was successfully launched on June 3, 2017 from Kennedy Space Center LC-39A, being the 100th mission to be launched from that pad. This mission was the first to re-fly a recovered Dragon capsule that previously flew on CRS-4 mission. This mission delivered 2,708 kilograms[54] of cargo to the International Space Station, including NICER.[55] The first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle landed successfully at Landing Zone 1.  This mission launched for the first time a refurbished Dragon capsule,[56] serial number C106, which had flown in September 2014 on the CRS-4 mission,[57] and was the first time since 2011 a reused spacecraft arrived at the ISS.[58] Gemini SC-2 capsule is the only other reused capsule, but it was only reflown suborbitally in 1966.
SpaceX CRS-12, SpaceX's twelfth CRS mission, was successfully launched on the first 'Block 4' version of the Falcon 9 on August 14, 2017 from Kennedy Space Center LC-39A at the first attempt. This mission delivered 2,349kg (5,179lb) of pressurized mass and 961kg (2,119lb) unpressurized. The external payload manifested for this flight was the CREAM cosmic-ray detector. Last flight of a newly-built Dragon capsule; further missions will use refurbished spacecraft.[59]
SpaceX CRS-13, SpaceX's thirteenth CRS mission, was the second use of a previously-flown Dragon capsule, but the first time in concordance with a reused first-stage booster.  It was successfully launched on December 15, 2017 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 at the first attempt. This was the first launch from SLC-40 since the Amos-6 pad anomaly. The booster was the previously-flown core from the CRS-11 mission. This mission delivered 1,560kg (3,439lb) of pressurized mass and 645kg (1,422lb) unpressurized.  It returned from orbit and splashed down on January 13, 2018, making it the first space capsule to be reflown to orbit more than once.[60]
SpaceX CRS-14, SpaceX's fourteenth CRS mission, was the third reuse of a previously-flown Dragon capsule.  It was successfully launched on April 2, 2018 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. It successfully docked with the ISS on April 4, 2018 and remained docked for a month before returning cargo and science experiments back to earth.
SpaceX CRS-15, successfully launched on June 29, 2018, was the fourth reuse.
Crewed development program


In 2006, Elon Musk stated that SpaceX had built "a prototype flight crew capsule, including a thoroughly tested 30-man-day life-support system".[21] A video simulation of the launch escape system's operation was released in January 2011.[61] Musk stated in 2010 that the developmental cost of a crewed Dragon and Falcon 9 would be between $800 million and $1 billion.[62] In 2009 and 2010, Musk suggested on several occasions that plans for a crewed variant of the Dragon were proceeding and had a two-to-three-year timeline to completion.[63][64] SpaceX submitted a bid for the third phase of CCDev, CCiCap.[65][66]
NASA Commercial Crew Development program
SpaceX was not awarded funding during the first phase of NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) milestone-based program. However, the company was selected on 18 April 2011, during the second phase of the program, to receive an award valued at $75 million to help develop its crew system.[67][68]
Their CCDev2 milestones involved the further advancement of the Falcon 9/Dragon crew transportation design, the advancement of the Launch Abort System propulsion design, completion of two crew accommodations demos, full-duration test firings of the launch abort engines, and demonstrations of their throttle capability.[69]
SpaceX's launch abort system received preliminary design approval from NASA in October 2011.[70] In December 2011, SpaceX performed its first crew accommodations test; the second such test is expected to involve spacesuit simulators and a higher-fidelity crewed Dragon mock-up.[71][72]
In January 2012, SpaceX successfully conducted full-duration tests of its SuperDraco landing/escape rocket engine at its Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas.[73]

On 3 August 2012, NASA announced the award of $440 million to SpaceX for the continuation of work on the Dragon under CCiCap.[74] On 20 December 2013, SpaceX completed a parachute drop test to validate the new parachute design.[75] This involved carrying a 5,400 kilograms (12,000lb) Dragon test article by helicopter to an altitude of 2,400 meters (8,000ft) above the Pacific Ocean.[76] The test article was released and intentionally forced into a tumble.[76] Dragon then released its two drogue parachutes, followed by its three main parachutes and splashed down into the ocean.[76] The test article was then retrieved by helicopter and returned to shore.[76]
On 6 May 2015, SpaceX completed a pad abort test for the Dragon 2.[77][78][79][80] During this test, the Dragon used its abort engines to launch away from a test stand at Launch Complex 40.[77][78][80] It traveled to an altitude of 1,187 meters (3,894ft),[81] separated from its trunk, deployed its drogue parachutes and then the main parachutes.[78][80] It splashed down into the ocean and was recovered.[78][80] The vehicle was planned to reach an altitude of 1,500 meters (5,000ft) but one of the engines underperformed due to an abnormal fuel mixture ratio.[78][79]
In a planned in-flight abort test, Dragon will use its launch abort engines to escape from a Falcon 9 first stage in flight. The launch is planned to occur from SLC-40. This test will occur at the point of worst-case dynamic loads, which is also when Dragon has the smallest performance margin for separation from its launch vehicle.[82] The Falcon 9 planned to be used will be a regular first stage and will have no second stage.
An uncrewed test mission to the ISS, SpX-DM1, is planned to be launched in January 2019.[19] It will be a 30-day mission that will spend the majority of its time docked to the space station.[83] It will then land in the ocean and be retrieved.[83] A crewed test mission to the ISS, SpX-DM2, is planned to be launched in June 2019[19] and last for 14 days.[84]
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.[85]
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.[86] Composite materials are extensively used in the spacecraft's manufacture to reduce weight and improve structural strength.[87]
By September 2013, SpaceX total manufacturing space had increased to nearly 1,000,000 square feet (93,000m2) 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) mission Dragons (CRS-3, CRS-4, CRS-5, CRS-6) plus the drop-test Dragon, and the pad-abort Dragon weldment for commercial crew.[88]
Variants and Derivatives
Dragon CRS

The Dragon spacecraft consists of a nose-cone cap that jettisons after launch, a conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule, and an unpressurized cargo-carrier trunk equipped with two solar arrays.[89] 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.[90][91][92] The Dragon capsule is re-usable, and can fly multiple missions.[89] The trunk is not recoverable; it separates from the capsule before re-entry and burns up in Earth's atmosphere.[93] 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 SpaceX CRS-2 mission.



The spacecraft is launched atop a Falcon 9 booster.[94] The Dragon capsule is equipped with 18 Draco thrusters.[91] During its initial cargo and crew flights, the Dragon capsule will land in the Pacific Ocean and be returned to the shore by ship.[95]
For the ISS Dragon cargo flights, the ISS's Canadarm2 grapples its Flight-Releasable Grapple Fixture and berths Dragon to the station's US Orbital Segment using a Common Berthing Mechanism.[96] The CRS Dragon does not have an independent means of maintaining a breathable atmosphere for astronauts and instead circulates in fresh air from the ISS.[97] For typical missions, Dragon is planned to remain berthed to the ISS for about 30 days.[98]
The CRS Dragon's capsule can transport 3,310kg (7,300lb) of cargo, which can be all pressurized, all unpressurized, or anywhere between. It can return to Earth 3,310kg (7,300lb), which can be all unpressurized disposal mass, or up to 2,500kg of return pressurized cargo, driven by parachute limitations. There is a volume constraint of 14m3 (490cuft) trunk unpressurized cargo and 11.2m3 (400cuft) of pressurized cargo (up or down).[99] The trunk was first used operationally on the Dragon's CRS-2 mission in March 2013.[100] Its solar arrays produce a peak power of 4kW.[9]
The CRS Dragon design was modified beginning with the fifth Dragon flight on the SpaceX CRS-3 mission to the ISS in March 2014.  While the outer mold line of the Dragon was unchanged, the avionics and cargo racks were redesigned to supply substantially more electrical power to powered cargo devices, including the GLACIER and MERLIN freezer modules for transporting critical science payloads.[101]
DragonLab
When used for non-NASA, non-ISS commercial flights, the uncrewed version of the Dragon spacecraft is called DragonLab.[89] It is reusable and free-flying and can carry pressurized and unpressurized payloads. Its subsystems include propulsion, power, thermal and environmental control, avionics, communications, thermal protection, flight software, guidance and navigation systems, and entry, descent, landing, and recovery gear.[5] It has a total combined upmass of 6,000 kilograms (13,000lb) upon launch, and a maximum downmass of 3,000 kilograms (6,600lb) when returning to Earth.[5] In November 2014 there were two DragonLab missions listed on the SpaceX launch manifest: one in 2016 and another in 2018.[102] However, these missions were removed from the manifest in early 2017, with no official SpaceX statement.[103]  The American Biosatellites once performed similar uncrewed payload-delivery functions, and the Russian Bion satellites still continue to do so.
Dragon 2

A successor of Dragon called Dragon 2 has been developed by SpaceX, designed to carry passengers and crew. It will be able to carry up to seven astronauts, or some mix of crew and cargo, to and from low Earth orbit. The Dragon 2 heat shield is designed to withstand Earth re-entry velocities from Lunar and Martian spaceflights.[90]  SpaceX undertook several U.S. Government contracts to develop the Dragon 2 crewed variant, including a Commercial Crew Development 2 (CCDev 2)-funded Space Act Agreement in April 2011, and a Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap)-funded space act agreement in August 2014.[104]

Red Dragon

Red Dragon was a version of the Dragon spacecraft that had been previously proposed to fly farther than Earth orbit and transit to Mars via interplanetary space. In addition to SpaceX's own 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 2-based capsule to enter the atmosphere of Mars. The concept was originally envisioned for launch in 2018 as a NASA Discovery mission, then alternatively for 2022, but was never formally submitted for funding within NASA.[105] The mission would have been designed to return samples from Mars to Earth at a fraction of the cost of NASA's own sample-return mission, which was projected in 2015 to cost 6 billion dollars.[105]
On 27 April 2016, SpaceX announced its plan to go ahead and launch a modified Dragon lander to Mars in 2018.[106][107] However, Musk canceled the Red Dragon program in July 2017.[108] The modified Red Dragon capsule would have performed all entry, descent and landing (EDL) functions needed to deliver payloads of 1 tonne (2,200lb) or more to the Martian surface without using a parachute. Preliminary analysis showed that the capsule's atmospheric drag would slow it enough for the final stage of its descent to be within the abilities of its SuperDraco retro-propulsion thrusters.[109][110]
List of missions

List includes only completed or currently manifested missions. Launch dates are listed in UTC.

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.[5]
Pressure vessel
10m3 (350cuft) interior pressurized, environmentally controlled, payload volume.[5]
Onboard environment: 10–46°C (50–115°F); relative humidity 25~75%; 13.9~14.9 psia air pressure (958.4~1027 hPa).[5]
Unpressurized sensor bay (recoverable payload)
0.1m3 (3.5cuft) unpressurized payload volume.
Sensor bay hatch opens after orbit insertion to allow full sensor access to the outer space environment, and closes before Earth atmosphere re-entry.[5]
Unpressurized trunk (non-recoverable)
14m3 (490cuft) payload volume in the 2.3m (7ft 7in) trunk, aft of the pressure vessel heat shield, with optional trunk extension to 4.3m (14ft 1in) total length, payload volume increases to 34m3 (1,200cuft).[5]
Supports sensors and space apertures up to 3.5m (11ft 6in) in diameter.[5]
Power, communication and command systems
Power: twin solar panels providing 1,500W average, 4,000W peak, at 28 and 120VDC.[5]
Spacecraft communications: commercial standard RS-422 and military standard 1553 serial I/O, plus Ethernet communications for IP-addressable standard payload service.
Command uplink: 300kbps.[5]
Telemetry/data downlink: 300Mbit/s standard, fault-tolerant S-band telemetry and video transmitters.[5]
Radiation tolerance
Dragon uses a "radiation-tolerant" design in the electronic hardware and software that make up its flight computers. The system uses three pairs of computers, each constantly checking on the others, to instantiate a fault-tolerant design. In the event of a radiation upset or soft error, one of the computer pairs will perform a soft reboot.[34]
Including the six computers that make up the main flight computers, Dragon employs a total of 18 triple-processor computers.[34]
See also

Dragon 2
Comparison of space station cargo vehicles
List of human spaceflight programs
Space Shuttle successors
Comparable vehicles
Cargo
Automated Transfer Vehicle – a retired expendable cargo vehicle used by the ESA in 2008–2014.
Cygnus spacecraft – a single-use, expendable cargo vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation
Dream Chaser Cargo System – a proposed cargo variant of  Sierra Nevada Corporation's spaceplane
H-II Transfer Vehicle – an expendable cargo vehicle currently in use by JAXA
Progress spacecraft – an expendable cargo vehicle currently in use by the Russian Federal Space Agency
Crew Transport
CST-100 – a spacecraft being developed by Boeing
Dream Chaser Space System – a planned crew variant of Sierra Nevada Corporation's spaceplane
Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle – a beyond-low-Earth-orbit spacecraft being developed by Lockheed Martin for NASA
Federatsiya – a reusable manned spacecraft under development by the Russian Federal Space Agency




 at SpaceX




. Slate. 30 May 2014.