The SpaceX Dragon 2 is a class of reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX. 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. Crew Dragon’s first non-piloted test flight occurred in March 2019, and its first crewed flight – with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley – occurred in May 2020. The first flight of the CargoDragon is planned to launch in December 2020.
About SpaceX Dragon 2 in brief
The SpaceX Dragon 2 is a class of reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX. 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. Crew Dragon’s first non-piloted test flight occurred in March 2019, and its first crewed flight – with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley – occurred in May 2020. Cargo Dragon is expected to supply cargo to the ISS under a Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract with NASA, along with Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems’ Cygnus spacecraft and Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spacecraft. It is also expected to be used in flights by American space tourism company Space Adventures and to shuttle tourists to and from Axiom Space’s planned space station. SpaceX originally intended to land Crew Dragon on land using the LES engines, with parachutes and an ocean Splashdown available in the case of an aborted launch. Propulsive landing was later cancelled, leaving ocean splash down under parachutes as the only option. In 2012, SpaceX was in talks with Orbital Outfitters about developing space suits to wear during launch and re-entry. Each crew member wears a custom space suit fitted for them. The spacesuit is primarily designed for use inside the Dragon : in the cases of a rapid cabin depressurization, the suit can protect the crew members.
The suit can also provide cooling for astronauts during normal flight. For the Demo-1 mission, a test dummy nicknamed Ripley was fitted with the spacesuit and sensors. For typical missions, Crew Dragon will remain on the station for up to 210 days, matching the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. SpaceX confirmed their target launch price for crewed Dragon flights of US$160 million, or about US$23 million per seat if the maximum crew of seven is and NASA orders at least four flights per year. Although Dragon 2 was intended from the earliest design to carry crew, SpaceX is proposing a separately-named model to carry fewer crew, or fewer seats, in 2020–2024. This led to a proposal to separate the Dragon 2 model from the Dragon, which SpaceX is using the Falcon 5 Block 5 launch vehicle to launch the cargo version of the Dragon. On 10 November, 2020, the Crew Dragon was fully certified by NASA as the first commercial spacecraft system in history capable of transporting humans to and. from the International Space Station. The first flight of the CargoDragon is planned to launch in December 2020. It was unveiled on 29 May 2014, during a press event at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. In October 2014, NASA selected the Dragon spacecraft as one of the candidates to fly American astronauts to the International space station, under the Commercial Crew Program, under a multi-year contract. The Dragon 2 has redesigned solar arrays and a modified outer mold line compared to the originalDragon.
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This page is based on the article SpaceX Dragon 2 published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
