Dragon 2 (spacecraft)

Dragon 2 is a class of spacecraft developed by the American company SpaceX. Founded in 2002, SpaceX made important strides in making space travel and delivery missions easier and more cost-effective. Following the success of the Falcon rocket series, SpaceX founder Elon Musk began the Dragon project. The first Dragon ships carried cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The updated Dragon 2 series featured separate cargo and manned ships: Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon, respectively.

After a successful unmanned test flight of the Crew Dragon in 2019, officials greenlighted a human flight in the summer of 2020. On May 30, 2020, astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken took off aboard the Crew Dragon and reached the ISS safely. They returned to Earth on August 2, marking the first time a private company has sent humans into space. SpaceX sees the Dragon series as a step toward space tourism.

Background

Space has long captured the public imagination and challenged pioneers to try to explore it and unravel its mysteries. Since the first space rockets and satellites in the 1950s, thousands of scientists in dozens of countries have worked on their own space projects. Some have been more successful than others, but all have contributed to a growing knowledge of what lies beyond Earth, and to a further development of spaceflight technology allowing humans and machines to push deeper into space.

One of the greatest achievements in the quest to explore space is the International Space Station (ISS), a large structure that orbits Earth. Since 2000, the United States and Russia have collaborated on operating the ISS, which serves not only as a research vessel but also as a sign of post-Cold War cooperation between the superpowers. Nineteen countries have sent at least 240 astronauts to visit the ISS. They have lived onboard for various lengths of time and purposes, ranging from studying the effects of low gravity on medicine to learning how the human body grows and changes in orbit.

Among the ongoing challenges of space exploration has been the tremendous cost and complexity of the equipment. Many scientists and entrepreneurs have dreamed of making space technology simpler, less expensive, and more accessible to common people. Likely the most famous and successful of these visionaries is Elon Musk. In 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, and took on top executive and design positions. Under Musk’s leadership, SpaceX began to redesign the traditional approach to space travel.

SpaceX’s mission is to create relatively inexpensive yet high-tech space rockets and spacecraft that would allow more people and machines to travel into space. Some of the first projects that Musk oversaw involved creating small rockets to launch satellites into orbit for a small percentage of the regular expense. In 2008, after many challenges and failures, the Falcon I rocket became the first privately created rocket to reach orbit.

Overview

After establishing a stable means of rocketing machines into space, Musk and SpaceX turned their sights to new goals. One of the main projects involved finding new ways to transport people and equipment to the ISS. With a hefty contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), SpaceX began the Falcon 9 project. The Falcon 9 successfully launched in 2010 and made its first trip to the ISS three years later. The Falcon missions saw some setbacks, including costly explosions, but completed more than eighty successful ISS missions.

The overall success of Falcon 9 opened the way to another generation of Earth-to-ISS transport vehicles. SpaceX developed the Dragon class of reusable spacecraft meant to make future ferrying missions to the ISS safer, easier, and less expensive. After several promising tests, the first Dragon craft reached the ISS in 2012 to deliver cargo, becoming the first private spacecraft to berth with (connect to via cables) the space station.

SpaceX next developed the Dragon 2 class, which was divided into two craft types: Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon. Cargo Dragon ships were a continuation of the SpaceX mission to deliver machines, supplies, and other equipment to the ISS. Crew Dragon ships were intended to carry human passengers to the ISS, a feat never before performed by a private company. The stakes were much higher now that any errors would put human lives at risk, and SpaceX used its many years of innovations and experience to create a unique space vehicle.

In 2014, SpaceX debuted its Dragon 2 model, the Crew Dragon, to praise and excitement. This 26.7-foot-tall, bullet-shaped ship had the capacity to carry up to seven people into space using sixteen powerful Draco thruster engines. It would support its passengers with top-of-the-line controls, touchscreens, escape and rescue systems, and life-support mechanisms. It also updated the berthing system to allow the craft to dock directly with the ISS, upon being scooped up by the station’s mechanical arm. The Crew Dragon featured six parachutes to help it re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and make “splashdown” ocean landings.

SpaceX began with an unmanned test flight, using sensors and dummies to record information and estimate the effects of the trip on human occupants. The Dragon 2 test flight launched on March 2, 2019, and successfully docked the next day. It then descended back to Earth on March 8. NASA officials were pleased with the results and planned a human flight. The administration was enthused about the project because, since 2011, the United States had no system for sending astronauts to the ISS. Rather, NASA had to send its astronauts to train and travel with the Russian space agency, an expensive process and, some felt, a sign of American weakness.

The time for the Crew Dragon manned launch arrived in the summer of 2020. On May 30, astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert “Bob” Behnken launched from Earth onboard the Dragon 2 ship. They successfully arrived and docked at the ISS before making an equally smooth return trip on August 2. This event marked the first time that a private company has sent humans to the ISS and opened many new options. SpaceX officials hoped to use this step to begin a space tourism venture. By 2024, the Crew Dragon had completed several subsequent missions. It completed its longest mission from March 4, 2024, to October 25, 2024. SpaceX planned to launch additional Crew Dragon flights in 2025.

Bibliography

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