Dragon Spacecraft
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is designed and built to travel from Earth to space and back again.
Overview
- Height / 23.6 ft
- Diameter / 12 ft
- Spacecraft Volume / 388 ft3
- Trunk Payload Volume / 494 ft3
Journey
This Dragon cargo spacecraft was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) by a Falcon 9 rocket.
It was berthed (attached) to the ISS by the Canadaarm2 robotic arm.
After each mission, Dragon returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
Structure
This Dragon spacecraft has two main parts - a pressurized section and an unpressurized trunk.
The pressurized section carries supplies like science experiments, spacewalk equipment, cubesats, and crew supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
The trunk is capable of transporting solar panels for the space station along with research instruments that can be exposed to the vacuum of space.
History
The Dragon spacecraft made history when it became the first privately built spacecraft to visit the ISS.
Since 2012, Dragon has visited the ISS over 50 times and transported 1,000+ critical science and research experiments and 300,000+ pounds of cargo and technology to and from the orbiting laboratory.
Missions
The SpaceX Dragon supported three missions to the International Space Station
- CRS-10, CRS-16, and CRS-20
- Spent a total of 88 days berthed to the space station
- Spent a total of 98 days on-orbit
- CRS-20 was the final flight of the Dragon Spacecraft and first iteration of SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft
