"Dragon 2" SpaceX

Dragon 2 is a class of reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX as the successor to the Dragon 1 cargo 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. It has two variants; Crew Dragon, a human-rated capsule capable of ferrying up to seven astronauts, and Cargo Dragon, an updated replacement for the original Dragon spacecraft. Crew Dragon is equipped with an integrated launch escape system (LES) 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 possess new flight computers and avionics. As of March 2020, four Dragon 2 spacecraft have been manufactured (not counting structural test articles that were never airborne); a test article named Dragonfly and three flightworthy vehicles, one of which was destroyed in an engine test.

Crew Dragon serves as one of two spacecraft that is expected to shuttle crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the other being the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. 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. Crew Dragon's first non-piloted test flight occurred in March 2019, and its first crewed flight – with astronauts Robert L. Behnken and Douglas G. Hurley – occurred 30 May 2020 at 3:22PM ET. This test flight marked the first time a private company has launched a crewed spacecraft. 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. The first flight of the Dragon 2 variant of Cargo Dragon is planned to launch in October 2020.