page_title: SpaceX Dragon 2
section_title: Cargo Dragon
hierarchical_section_title: SpaceX Dragon 2 / Development and variants / Cargo Dragon
caption_attribution_description: English: Rendering of Cargo Dragon.
context_page_description: The SpaceX Dragon 2 is a class of reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX as the successor to Dragon, a reusable cargo spacecraft. It has two variants: Crew Dragon, a space capsule capable of ferrying up to seven astronauts, and Cargo Dragon, an updated replacement for the original Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and returns to Earth via an ocean splashdown. Unlike its predecessor, the spacecraft can dock itself to the ISS instead of being berthed. Crew Dragon is equipped with an integrated launch escape system capable of accelerating the vehicle away from the rocket in an emergency at 11.8 m/s², accomplished by using a set of four side-mounted thruster pods with two SuperDraco engines each. The spacecraft features redesigned solar arrays and a modified outer mold line compared to the original Dragon, and possesses new flight computers and avionics. As of March 2020, four Dragon 2 spacecraft have been manufactured.
context_section_description: 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 CRS2 bid competition, with contracts awarded in January 2016 for six flights.
caption: Rendering of Cargo Dragon.
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