Elon Musk's spacecraft manufacturing company SpaceX made history on 05/25/2012 at 9:56 a.m. ET, when its Dragon capsule was captured by the International Space Station's robotic arm. The vessel berthed at the ISS at 12:12 p.m. ET.
DragonX is the first privately owned space vessel to berth at the International Space Station.
Musk, a co-founder of PayPal, began the SpaceX Dragon capsule project way back in 2005 and developed the craft in four and a half years for about $300 million.
According to SpaceX's site, the Dragon capsule is 20 feet in length, weighs about 9,260 lbs and can carry up to 13,228 lbs to low-earth orbit or up to seven passengers. In December 2008, the project secured $3.1 billion in funding from NASA for a contract of 12 flight missions or more.
DragonX is the first privately owned space vessel to berth at the International Space Station.
Musk, a co-founder of PayPal, began the SpaceX Dragon capsule project way back in 2005 and developed the craft in four and a half years for about $300 million.
According to SpaceX's site, the Dragon capsule is 20 feet in length, weighs about 9,260 lbs and can carry up to 13,228 lbs to low-earth orbit or up to seven passengers. In December 2008, the project secured $3.1 billion in funding from NASA for a contract of 12 flight missions or more.
Dragon is a free-flying, reusable spacecraft being developed by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, the Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members.
The Dragon spacecraft is comprised of 3 main elements: the Nosecone, which protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent; the Spacecraft, which houses the crew and/or pressurized cargo as well as the service section containing avionics, the RCS system, parachutes, and other support infrastructure; and the Trunk, which provides for the stowage of unpressurized cargo and will support Dragon’s solar arrays and thermal radiators.
In December 2008, NASA announced the selection of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires. The $1.6 billion contract represents a minimum of 12 flights, with an option to order additional missions for a cumulative total contract value of up to $3.1 billion.
Though designed to address cargo and crew requirements for the ISS, as a free-flying spacecraft Dragon also provides an excellent platform for in-space technology demonstrations and scientific instrument testing. SpaceX is currently manifesting fully commercial, non-ISS Dragon flights under the name “DragonLab”. DragonLab represents an emergent capability for in-space experimentation.
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