106-655: SpaceX Crew-3 was the Crew Dragon's third NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its fifth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission successfully launched on 11 November 2021 at 02:03:31 UTC to the International Space Station . It was the maiden flight of Crew Dragon Endurance . This launch brought the total number of humans who have been to space to more than 600 with Maurer (600) and Barron (601). Crew Dragon capsules have been given names by their initial crews — Endeavour for
212-472: A $ 1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to $ 46 billion . In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional $ 1.61 billion in an equity round from 99 investors at a per share value of approximately $ 420 , raising the company valuation to approximately $ 74 billion . By 2021, SpaceX had raised more than $ 6 billion in equity financing. Most of
318-406: A stuffed turtle as zero-g indicator to pay a tribute to their astronaut group. Additionally, to include the other crew members on board, Matthias Maurer and Tom Marshburn, the turtle was named "Pfau", a German word meaning "Peacock" for Matthias Maurer, who is German, and for Tom Marshburn, who was part of NASA Astronaut Group 19 (nicknamed The Peacocks ). The third SpaceX operational mission in
424-554: A Crew Dragon in 2022. In October 2021, Space Adventures stated that the contract had expired and would not be executed, but left open the possibility of a partnership with SpaceX in the future. SpaceX planned a series of four flight tests for the Crew Dragon: a pad abort test, an uncrewed orbital flight to the ISS, an in-flight abort test, and finally, a crewed flight to the ISS, which was initially planned for July 2019, but after
530-466: A Dragon capsule explosion, was delayed to May 2020. The pad abort test was conducted successfully on 6 May 2015 at SpaceX's leased SLC-40 launch site. Dragon landed safely in the ocean to the east of the launchpad 99 seconds after ignition of the SuperDraco engines. While a flight-like Dragon 2 and trunk were used for the pad abort test, they rested atop a truss structure for the test rather than
636-459: A Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test . The payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at $ 200 million , was destroyed. The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels. Though not considered an unsuccessful flight,
742-420: A booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021. Within the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. On 13 December 2021, company CEO Elon Musk announced that the company was starting a carbon dioxide removal program that would convert captured carbon into rocket fuel , after he announced a $ 100 million donation to the X Prize Foundation
848-473: A crew transport vehicle to the ISS. NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012. In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk and his seventy million shares were then estimated to be worth $ 875 million on private markets , valuing SpaceX at $ 1.3 billion . In May 2012, with
954-647: A custom-fitted space suit that provides cooling inside inside the Dragon (IVA type suit) but can also protect its wearer in a rapid cabin depressurization . For the Demo-1 mission, a test dummy was fitted with the spacesuit and sensors. The spacesuit is made from Nomex , a fire-retardant fabric similar to Kevlar . The spacecraft's design was unveiled on 29 May 2014, during a press event at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California . In October 2014, NASA selected
1060-429: A departure from the prior NASA practice, where construction contracts with commercial firms led to direct NASA operation of the spacecraft, NASA is purchasing space transport services from SpaceX, including construction, launch, and operation of the Dragon 2. In August 2018, NASA and SpaceX agreed on the loading procedures for propellants , vehicle fluids and crew. High-pressure helium will be loaded first, followed by
1166-484: A dragon all the way up ... a little bit less g's [than the Space Shuttle ] but more 'alive' is probably the best way I would describe it". Regarding descent in the spacecraft, Behnken stated, "Once we descended a little bit into the atmosphere, Dragon really came alive. It started to fire thrusters and keep us pointed in the appropriate direction. The atmosphere starts to make noise—you can hear that rumble outside
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#17327762676491272-406: A duty it shares with Northrop Grumman 's Cygnus spacecraft. As of November 2024, it is the only reusable orbital cargo spacecraft in operation, though it may eventually be joined by Sierra Nevada Corporation 's under-development Dream Chaser spaceplane. There are two variants of Dragon 2: Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon. Crew Dragon was initially called "DragonRider" and it was intended from
1378-488: A flight representative capsule rather than the test article from the pad abort test. This test was previously planned to use the capsule C204 from Demo-1, however, C204 was destroyed in an explosion during a static fire testing on 20 April 2019. Capsule C205 , originally planned for Demo-2 was used for the In-Flight Abort Test with C206 being planned for use during Demo-2. This was the final flight test of
1484-422: A full Falcon 9 rocket. A crash test dummy embedded with a suite of sensors was placed inside the test vehicle to record acceleration loads and forces at the crew seat, while the remaining six seats were loaded with weights to simulate full-passenger-load weight. The test objective was to demonstrate sufficient total impulse , thrust and controllability to conduct a safe pad abort. A fuel mixture ratio issue
1590-529: A new expendable trunk for each flight. SpaceX's CCtCap contract values each seat on a Crew Dragon flight to be around US$ 88 million, while the face value of each seat has been estimated by NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to be around US$ 55 million. This contrasts with the 2014 Soyuz launch price of US$ 76 million per seat for NASA astronauts. Dragon 2 was intended from the earliest design concept to carry crew, or with fewer seats, both crew and cargo. The cargo version, dubbed Cargo Dragon , became
1696-405: A private company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet of things (IoT) devices, for $ 524 million . In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network. SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The small-lift Falcon 1
1802-525: A reality after 2014, when NASA sought bids on a second round of multi-year contracts to bring cargo to the ISS in 2020 through 2024. In January 2016, SpaceX won contracts for six of these flights, dubbed CRS-2 . As of April 2024 , Cargo Dragon has completed nine missions to and from the ISS with six more planned. Cargo Dragons lack several features of the crewed variant, including seats, cockpit controls, astronaut life support systems, and SuperDraco abort engines. Cargo Dragon improves on many aspects of
1908-484: A remote area of the southern Pacific Ocean. The vehicle will attach to the ISS using one of the Cargo Dragon vehicles, which will be paired with a longer trunk module equipped with 46 Draco thrusters (instead of the normal 16) and will carry 30,000 kg (66,000 lb) of propellant, nearly six times the normal load. NASA plans to launch the deorbit vehicle in 2030 where it will remain attached, dormant, for about
2014-453: A reusable space capsule and an expendable trunk module , has two variants: the 4-person Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon , a replacement for the Dragon 1 cargo capsule. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, and the capsule returns to Earth through splashdown . Crew Dragon's primary role is to transport crews to and from the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program ,
2120-417: A revenue of over $ 10 billion in 2024. In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated $ 100,000 to his Mars Society , joining its board of directors for a short time. He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis , a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr intercontinental ballistic missile for
2226-495: A separation and abort scenario in the troposphere at transonic velocities shortly after passing through max Q , where the vehicle experiences maximum aerodynamic pressure. The Dragon 2 used its SuperDraco abort engines to push itself away from the Falcon 9 after an intentional premature engine cutoff, after which the Falcon was destroyed by aerodynamic forces. The Dragon followed its suborbital trajectory to apogee, at which point
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#17327762676492332-431: A task handled by the Space Shuttle until it was retired in 2011. It will be joined by Boeing's Starliner in this role when NASA certifies it. Crew Dragon is also used for commercial flights to ISS and other destinations, and is expected to be used to transport people to and from Axiom Space 's planned space station . Cargo Dragon brings cargo to the ISS under a Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract with NASA ,
2438-483: A year as the station's orbit naturally decays to 220 km (140 mi). The spacecraft is to then conduct one or more orientation burns to lower the perigee to 150 km (93 mi), followed by a final deorbiting burn. In June 2024, NASA awarded a contract worth up to $ 843 million to SpaceX to build the deorbit vehicle as it works to secure funding. SpaceX, which aims to dramatically lower space transportation costs, designed Dragon 2 to be reused, not discarded as
2544-420: Is the largest launch vehicle in history and aims to fully realize the company's vision of a fully-reusable, cost-effective and adaptable launch vehicle. SpaceX is also developing its own space suit and astronaut via its Polaris program as well as developing the human lander for lunar missions under NASA's Artemis program . SpaceX is not publicly traded; a space industry newspaper estimated that SpaceX has
2650-466: Is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space , ultimately by a factor of ten. SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle , the Falcon 1 , with internal funding. The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle . The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately $ 90 million to $ 100 million . The Falcon rocket series
2756-448: Is typical of spacecraft. It is composed of a reusable capsule and a disposable trunk. SpaceX and NASA initially certified the capsule to be used for five missions. As of March 2024 , they are working to certify it for up to fifteen missions. To maximize cost-effectiveness, SpaceX incorporated several innovative design choices. The Crew Dragon employs eight side-mounted SuperDraco engines for its emergency escape system, eliminating
2862-538: The Commercial Crew Program was originally scheduled to launch on 31 October 2021. However, it was delayed to 3 November 2021 due to unfavorable weather in the Atlantic Ocean, and then further delayed to 7 November 2021 due to a minor medical issue with one of the astronauts. Due to expected bad weather, it was again delayed to 9 November 2021. Due to the launch delays, NASA decided to return
2968-709: The Dragon C2+ launch, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station . After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to $ 2.4 billion or $ 20 /share. By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $ 1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $ 200 million , with Musk investing approximately $ 100 million and other investors having put in about $ 100 million . SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of
3074-531: The Falcon 5 . The company instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9 , a reusable heavier lift vehicle . Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA , which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006. The overall contract award
3180-570: The SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas . Since its founding in 2001, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion , reusable launch vehicle , human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. By the late 2010s, SpaceX had become the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence rivaling that of the Chinese space program and eclipsing all those of its private competitors. SpaceX, NASA and
3286-637: The Starship and Starlink projects. The purpose of the Starship vehicle is to enable large-scale transit of humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. SpaceX's Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, with a payload capacity of 100+ tons. Construction of initial prototypes and tests for Starship started in early 2019 in Florida and Texas. All Starship construction and testing moved to
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3392-479: The United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of governmental contracts . SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2001 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to a sustainable colony on Mars . In 2008, when SpaceX was almost bankrupt, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towards
3498-480: The first successful first-stage landing in 2015 and re-launch of the first stage in 2017 . Falcon Heavy , built from three Falcon 9 boosters, first flew in 2018 after a more than decade-long development process. As of October 2024, the company's Falcon 9 rockets have landed and flown again more than 330 times , reaching 1–2 launches a week. These milestones delivered the company much-needed investment and SpaceX sought to diversify its sources of income. In 2019,
3604-425: The modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch costs. In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer, Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey would later found
3710-468: The original Dragon design, including the recovery and refurbishment process. Since 2021, Cargo Dragon has been able to provide power to some payloads, saving space in the ISS and eliminating the time needed to move the payloads and set them up inside. This feature, announced on 29 August 2021 during the CRS-23 launch, is called Extend-the-Lab. "For CRS-23 there are 3 Extend-the-Lab payloads launching with
3816-565: The California Secretary of State. The move to relocate SpaceX's headquarters was seen as largely symbolic, at least in the short term. The Hawthorne facility continues to support the company's Falcon launch vehicles, which was SpaceX's workhorse product in 2024. SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission featured the first-ever private spacewalk, marking a major milestone in commercial space exploration. In January 2019, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce to help finance
3922-603: The Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to finalize the development of the Crew Transportation System. The contract included several technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions after certification. In January 2015, SpaceX raised $ 1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments , in exchange for 8.33% of
4028-485: The Crew Dragon, above the two center seats (occupied by the commander and pilot), there is a three-screen control panel. Below the seats is the cargo pallet, where around 230 kilograms (500 lb) of items can be stowed. The capsule’s ceiling includes a small space toilet (with privacy curtain), and an International Docking System Standard (IDSS) port. For private spaceflight missions not requiring ISS docking,
4134-674: The Crew Dragon. The spacecraft can be operated in full vacuum , and "the crew will wear SpaceX-designed space suits to protect them from a rapid cabin depressurization emergency event". The spacecraft has also been designed to be able to land safely with a leak "of up to an equivalent orifice of 6.35 mm [0.25 in] in diameter". The spacecraft's nose cone protects the docking port and four forward-facing thrusters during ascent and reentry. This component pivots open for in-space operations. Dragon 2's propellant and helium pressurant for emergency abort and orbital maneuvers are stored in composite-carbon-overwrap titanium spherical tanks at
4240-525: The Dragon spacecraft as one of the candidates to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station, under the Commercial Crew Program . In March 2022, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters that "We are finishing our final (capsule), but we still are manufacturing components, because we'll be refurbishing". SpaceX later decided to build a fifth Crew Dragon capsule, to be available by 2024. SpaceX also manufactures
4346-519: The Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives. By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months. In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a $ 75 million contract for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as
SpaceX Crew-3 - Misplaced Pages Continue
4452-517: The IDSS port can be replaced with a 1.2-meter (3 ft 11 in) domed plexiglass window offering panoramic views, similar to the ISS Cupola . Additionally, SpaceX has developed a "Skywalker" hatch for missions involving extravehicular activities . The Cargo Dragon is also loaded from the side hatch and has an IDSS port on the ceiling. However, it lacks the control panels, windows, and seats of
4558-533: The ISS for a nominal period of 180 days, but is designed to remain on the station for up to 210 days, matching the Russian Soyuz spacecraft . Crew Dragon includes an integrated pusher launch escape system whose eight SuperDraco engines can pull the capsule away from the launch vehicle in an emergency. SpaceX originally intended to use the SuperDraco engines to land Crew Dragon on land; parachutes and an ocean splashdown were envisioned for use only in
4664-608: The ISS. SpaceX was to receive up to US$ 2.6 billion under this contract to provide development test flights and up to six operational flights. Dragon was the less expensive proposal, but NASA's William H. Gerstenmaier considered the Boeing Starliner proposal the stronger of the two. However, Crew Dragon's first operational flight, SpaceX Crew-1 , was on 16 November 2020 after several test flights, while Starliner suffered multiple problems and delays, with its first operational flight slipping to no earlier than early 2025. In
4770-448: The Moon. On 18 November 2023, SpaceX launched its second integrated Starship test , with both vehicles flying for a few minutes before separately exploding. In early March 2024 SpaceX announced that it was targeting 14 March as the tentative launch date for its next uncrewed Starship launch configuration flight test, pending the issuance of a "launch license" by the FAA . This license
4876-469: The astronauts from Crew-2 before Crew-3 launched, thus being the first Crew Dragon indirect handover of space station crews. SpaceX Crew-2 departed the station on 8 November 2021 and splashed down on 9 November 2021. SpaceX Crew-3 mission launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 November 2021 at 02:03:31 UTC. The return of Crew-3 was delayed multiple times, from April 2022 to early May. Undocking happened on 5 May (05:20 UTC), with splashdown occurring
4982-512: The beginning to support a crew of seven or a combination of crew and cargo. Earlier spacecraft had a berthing port and were berthed to ISS by ISS personnel. Dragon 2 instead has an IDSS -compatible docking port to dock to the International Docking Adapter ports on ISS. It is able to perform fully autonomous rendezvous and docking with manual override ability. For typical missions, Crew Dragon will remain docked to
5088-826: The capital raised since 2019 has been used to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle. By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $ 100.3 billion . On 16 April 2021, Starship HLS won a contract to play a critical role in the NASA crewed spaceflight Artemis program . By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-ground computer and networking services for Starlink . A new round of financing in 2022 valued SpaceX at $ 127 billion . In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas , landing
5194-431: The capsule during reentry. Dragon 2 uses a total of six parachutes (two drogues and four mains) to decelerate after atmospheric entry and before splashdown, compared to the five used by Dragon 1. The additional parachute was required by NASA as a safety measure after a Dragon 1 suffered a parachute malfunction. The company also went through two rounds of parachute development before being certified to fly with crew. In 2024,
5300-412: The capsule's base in an area known as the service section. For launch aborts, the capsule relies on eight SuperDraco engines arranged in four redundant pairs. Each engine generates 71 kN (16,000 lb f ) of thrust. Sixteen smaller Draco thrusters placed around the spacecraft control its attitude and perform orbital maneuvers. When the capsule returns to Earth, a PICA-3 heat shield safeguards
5406-442: The case of an aborted launch. Precision water landing under parachutes was proposed to NASA as "the baseline return and recovery approach for the first few flights" of Crew Dragon. However, propulsive landing was later cancelled, leaving ocean splashdown 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
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#17327762676495512-565: The company Vector Launch ), rocket engineer Tom Mueller , and Chris Thompson. SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California . Early SpaceX employees, such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees. Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX
5618-417: The company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. By October 2016, following the successful landings, SpaceX indicated they were offering their customers a 10% price discount if they choose to fly their payload on a reused Falcon 9 first stage. A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when
5724-404: The company raised $ 350 million , which raised its valuation to $ 21 billion . In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts. By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about $ 12 billion in contract revenue. The contracts included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers. This made SpaceX
5830-414: The company, establishing the company valuation at approximately $ 12 billion . The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink , to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites. The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem
5936-522: The competition from SpaceX. Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA). The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over $ 400 million over the years. In September 2014, NASA's Director of Commercial Spaceflight, Kevin Crigler, awarded SpaceX
6042-436: The development of the larger Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon 1 capsule to satisfy NASA 's COTS contracts for deliveries to the International Space Station . By 2012, SpaceX finished all COTS test flights and began delivering Commercial Resupply Services missions to the International Space Station. Also around that time, SpaceX started developing hardware to make the Falcon 9 first stage reusable . The company demonstrated
6148-755: The end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon spacecraft . In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded $ 396 million to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the COTS program . The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon Project which evaluated new U.S. launch vehicles suitable for use in hypersonic missile delivery for Prompt Global Strike . The first three launches of
6254-530: The entirety the test flight. The same capsule was planned to be re-used in June 2019 for an in-flight abort test before it exploded on 20 April 2019. On 20 April 2019, Crew Dragon C204 , the capsule used in the Demo-1 mission, was destroyed in an explosion during static fire testing at the Landing Zone 1 facility. On the day of the explosion, the initial testing of the Crew Dragon's Draco thrusters
6360-425: The final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135 . The first orbital test of Crew Dragon was an uncrewed mission, commonly called "Demo-1" and launched on 2 March 2019. The spacecraft tested the approach and automated docking procedures with the ISS, remained docked until 8 March 2019, then conducted the full re-entry, splashdown and recovery steps to qualify for a crewed mission. Life-support systems were monitored for
6466-450: The first crewed Crew Dragon Demo-2 to the International Space Station would launch on 27 May 2020. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley crewed the mission, marking the first crewed launch to the International Space Station from U.S. soil since STS-135 in July 2011. The original launch was postponed to 30 May 2020 due to weather conditions at the launch site. The second launch attempt
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#17327762676496572-499: The first crewed flight launched on 30 May 2020 with the launch of the Demo-2 mission. In June 2019, Bigelow Aerospace announced it had reserved with SpaceX up to four missions of four passengers each to the ISS as early as 2020 and planned to sell them for around US$ 52 million per seat. These plans were cancelled by September 2019. Space Adventures contracted SpaceX for a five-day high elliptic orbit space tourism mission with
6678-417: The first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning to deploy what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year. In 2022, most SpaceX launches focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 6,000 satellites in orbit. On 16 July 2021, SpaceX entered an agreement to acquire Swarm Technologies ,
6784-474: The first operational satellite of the Starlink internet satellite constellation came online. In subsequent years, Starlink generated the bulk of SpaceX's income and paved the way for its Starshield military counterpart. In 2020, SpaceX began to operate its Dragon 2 capsules to deliver crewed missions for NASA and private entities. Around this time, SpaceX began building test prototypes for Starship , which
6890-458: The first successful launch achieved on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $ 30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract awarding $ 1.6 billion to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company. Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1
6996-515: The first, and Resilience for the second. On 7 October 2021, it was announced that the third capsule will be called Endurance . The name honors the SpaceX and NASA teams that endured through a pandemic , building the spacecraft and training the astronauts who flew it. The name also honors Endurance , the ship used by Shackleton 's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition . The three-masted vessel sank in 1915 after being bound in ice before reaching Antarctica. German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer
7102-399: The following day after spending 176 days in space . The European segment of the mission is called "Cosmic Kiss". SpaceX Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consists of
7208-794: The greater war between Russia and Ukraine, Starlink was extensively used . In 2022, SpaceX's Falcon 9 also became the world record holder for the most launches of a single vehicle type in a single year. SpaceX launched a rocket approximately every six days in 2022, with 61 launches in total. All but one (a Falcon Heavy in November) was on a Falcon 9 rocket. In November 2023, SpaceX announced it would acquire its parachute supplier Pioneer Aerospace out of bankruptcy for $ 2.2 million . On 16 July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X that SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California , to SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas . Musk said this
7314-469: The landing technology. The Falcon 9 prototypes performed vertical takeoffs and landings ( VTOL ). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013. SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide. That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face
7420-412: The launch sequence of a space vehicle. In the case of a rocket that must be self-destructed during its ascent, max q occurs at the point of self-destruction. Eventually, the vehicle lost control and spun erratically until the automated flight termination system was activated, which intentionally destroyed the rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and other individuals familiar with the space industry have referred to
7526-462: The leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches. In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company , and began work to construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility, using a small number of SpaceX employees, which was completed in May 2018, and opened to the public in December 2018. During 2018, The Boring Company
7632-422: The mission, and once docked, a 4th which is currently already on the space station will be added to Dragon". For the first time, Dragon Cargo Dragon C208 performed test reboost of the ISS via its aft-facing Draco thrusters on 8 November 2024 at 17:50 UTC. The US Deorbit Vehicle is a planned Cargo Dragon variant that will be used to deorbit the ISS and direct any remnants into the " spacecraft cemetery ",
7738-481: The most challenging atmospheric conditions of the flight trajectory, imposing the worst structural stress of a real flight on the rocket and spacecraft. The abort test was performed using a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket with a fully fueled second stage with a mass simulator replacing the Merlin engine. Earlier, this test had been scheduled before the uncrewed orbital test, however, SpaceX and NASA considered it safer to use
7844-535: The need for a traditional, disposable escape tower . Furthermore, instead of housing the critical and expensive life support , thruster , and propellant storage systems in a disposable service module , Dragon 2 integrates them within the capsule for reuse. The trunk serves as an adapter between the capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage and also includes solar panels , a heat-dissipation radiator , and fins to provide aerodynamic stability during emergency aborts. Dragon 2 integrates solar arrays directly into
7950-457: The new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year. On 20 April 2023, Starship's first orbital flight test ended in a mid-air explosion over the Gulf of Mexico before booster separation. After launch, multiple engines in the booster progressively failed, causing the vehicle to reach max q later than planned. "Max q" is the theoretical point of maximal mechanical stress which occurs during
8056-417: The passengers approximately two hours prior to the scheduled launch; the ground crew will then depart the launch pad and move to a safe distance. The launch escape system will be activated approximately 40 minutes prior to launch, with propellant loading commencing several minutes later. The first automated test mission launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 2 March 2019. After schedule slips,
8162-555: The previous February to provide the monetary rewards to winners in a contest to develop the best carbon capture technology . In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (ESA) began initial discussions with SpaceX that could lead to the company's launchers being used temporarily, given that Russia blocked access to Soyuz rockets amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Since that invasion and in
8268-531: The project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell . Musk returned with his team to Moscow, this time bringing Michael Griffin , who later became the 11th Administrator of NASA , but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. On the flight home, Musk announced he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead. By applying vertical integration , using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible, and adopting
8374-553: The rocket explosion sent the company into a four-month launch hiatus while it worked out what went wrong. SpaceX returned to flight in January 2017. In March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space. The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket. In July 2017,
8480-401: The rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had failed, as well, and consequently Tesla , SolarCity , and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time. Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress. The financial situation started to turn around with
8586-480: The spacecraft before it began carrying astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Prior to the flight test, teams completed launch day procedures for the first crewed flight test, from suit-up to launch pad operations. The joint teams conducted full data reviews that needed to be completed prior to NASA astronauts flying on the system during SpaceX's Demo-2 mission. On 17 April 2020, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced
8692-422: The spacecraft's trunk was jettisoned. The smaller Draco engines were then used to orient the vehicle for the descent. All major functions were executed, including separation, engine firings, parachute deployment, and landing. Dragon 2 splashed down at 15:38:54 UTC just off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The test objective was to demonstrate the ability to safely move away from the ascending rocket under
8798-407: The spacecraft, a pilot who serves as backup for both command and operations and two mission specialists who may have specific duties assigned depending on the mission. However, the Crew Dragon can fly missions with just two astronauts as needed, and in an emergency, up to seven astronauts could return to Earth from the ISS on Dragon. On the ground, crews enter the capsule through a side hatch. On
8904-411: The system 100 ms before firing damaged a check valve and resulted in the explosion. SpaceX modified the Dragon 2 replacing check valves with burst discs , which are designed for single use, and the adding of flaps to each SuperDraco to seal the thrusters prior to splashdown, preventing water intrusion. The SuperDraco engine test was repeated on 13 November 2019 with Crew Dragon C205 . The test
9010-415: The test flight as a success. Musk said at the time that it would take "six to eight weeks" to get the infrastructure prepared for another launch. In October 2023, a senior SpaceX executive stated the company had been ready to launch the next test flight since September. He accused government regulators of disrupting the project's progress, adding the delay could lead to China beating U.S. astronauts back to
9116-485: The trunk separation but with the parachutes it was a pretty significant jolt". List includes only completed or currently manifested missions. Dates are listed in UTC , and for future events, they are the earliest possible opportunities (also known as NET dates) and may change. SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. , commonly referred to as SpaceX , is an American space technology company headquartered at
9222-483: The trunk's structure, replacing the deployable panels of its predecessor, Dragon 1. The trunk can also accommodate unpressurized cargo, such as the Roll Out Solar Array transported to the ISS. The trunk is connected to the capsule using a fitting known as "the claw." The typical Crew Dragon mission includes four astronauts: a commander who leads the mission and has primary responsibility for operating
9328-544: The use of the SuperDraco thrusters for propulsive landing was enabled again, but only as a back-up for parachute emergencies. Crew Dragon is used by both commercial and government customers. Axiom launches commercial astronauts to the ISS and intends to eventually launch to their own private space station. NASA flights to the ISS have four astronauts, with the added payload mass and volume used to carry pressurized cargo. On 16 September 2014, NASA announced that SpaceX and Boeing had been selected to provide crew transportation to
9434-416: The vehicle. And as the vehicle tries to control, you feel a little bit of that shimmy in your body. ... We could feel those small rolls and pitches and yaws—all those little motions were things we picked up on inside the vehicle. ... All the separation events, from the trunk separation through the parachute firings, were very much like getting hit in the back of the chair with a baseball bat ... pretty light for
9540-615: The way to starting commercial services under an upcoming ISS Crew Transportation Services contract. On 3 August 2018, NASA announced the crew for the DM-2 mission. The crew of two consisted of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley . Behnken previously flew as mission specialist on the STS-123 and the STS-130 missions. Hurley previously flew as a pilot on the STS-127 mission and on
9646-509: Was $ 278 million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft , Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon. As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit , using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft. The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1 ,
9752-401: Was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk. In 2019 SpaceX raised $ 1.33 billion of capital across three funding rounds. By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $ 33.3 billion and reached $ 36 billion by March 2020. On 19 August 2020, after
9858-475: Was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts ( Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken ) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2 , making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida. In May 2019, SpaceX launched
9964-612: Was assigned to Kayla Barron in May 2021. Chari is the first rookie astronaut to command a NASA space mission since the Skylab 4 crew blasted off to the Skylab space station in 1973. Gerald Carr , who had not flown in space before, led a three-man crew on an 84-day flight on the Skylab. This was also the first spaceflight for Maurer and Barron. The first astronauts of this NASA Astronaut Group 22 (nicknamed The Turtles ) to fly to space, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron on SpaceX Crew-3 took
10070-464: Was because the recently passed California AB1955 bill "and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies". This new law in California bans school districts from requiring that teachers notify parents about changes to a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The headquarters officially moved to Brownsville, Texas in August 2024, according to records filed with
10176-582: Was detected after the flight in one of the eight SuperDraco engines causing it to under perform, but did not materially affect the flight. On 24 November 2015, SpaceX conducted a test of Dragon 2's hovering abilities at the firm's rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas . In a video, the spacecraft is shown suspended by a hoisting cable and igniting its SuperDraco engines to hover for about 5 seconds, balancing on its 8 engines firing at reduced thrust to compensate exactly for gravity. The test vehicle
10282-486: Was granted on 13 March 2024. On 14 March 2024 at 13:25 UTC, Starship launched for the 3rd time and for the first time Starship reached its planned suborbital trajectory. The flight ended with the booster experiencing a malfunction shortly before landing and the ship being lost during reentry over the Indian Ocean. On 4 June 2024, SpaceX received the launch license for Starship's 4th test flight. The licensure itself
10388-554: Was named after Star Wars ' s Millennium Falcon fictional spacecraft. In 2004, SpaceX protested against NASA to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because of a sole-source contract awarded to Kistler Aerospace . Before the GAO could respond, NASA withdrew the contract, and formed the COTS program . In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through
10494-548: Was notable in that it was the first time that the FAA included a clause that would allow SpaceX to launch subsequent test flights without a mishap investigation, provided that they met a similar launch profile and used the same specification of hardware. The provision could prove to speed the development timeline. On 12 October 2024, SpaceX received FAA approval for Starship's 5th test flight. SpaceX launched Starship on its 6th test flight on 19 November 2024. A significant milestone
10600-710: Was selected first for the mission in September 2020. NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn were added on 14 December 2020 to the crew. The fourth seat was left open in anticipation that a Russian cosmonaut would take the seat, marking the beginning of a barter agreement that would see NASA and Roscosmos trade seats on the Soyuz and Commercial Crew Vehicles, although in April 2021 then-acting NASA administration Steve Jurczyk said that this agreement would be unlikely to start until after Crew-3 had launched. The fourth seat
10706-657: Was soon retired following its second successful, and fifth total, launch in July 2009. This allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at the time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier . SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle,
10812-405: Was successful, showing that the modifications made to the vehicle were successful. Since the destroyed capsule had been slated for use in the upcoming in-flight abort test, the explosion and investigation delayed that test and the subsequent crewed orbital test. The Crew Dragon in-flight abort test was launched on 19 January 2020 at 15:30 UTC from LC-39A on a suborbital trajectory to conduct
10918-450: Was successful, with capsule C206, later named Endeavour by the crew, launching on 30 May 2020 19:22 UTC . The capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station on 31 May 2020 at 14:27 UTC. On 2 August 2020, Crew Dragon undocked and splashed-down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean. Launching in the Dragon 2 spacecraft was described by astronaut Bob Behnken as "smooth off the pad" but "we were definitely driving and riding
11024-464: Was successful, with the anomaly occurring during the test of the SuperDraco abort system. Telemetry, high-speed camera footage, and analysis of recovered debris indicate the problem occurred when a small amount of dinitrogen tetroxide leaked into a helium line used to pressurize the propellant tanks. The leakage apparently occurred during pre-test processing. As a result, the pressurization of
11130-480: Was the same capsule that performed the pad abort test earlier in 2015; it was nicknamed DragonFly . In 2015, NASA named its first Commercial Crew astronaut cadre of four veteran astronauts to work with SpaceX and Boeing – Robert Behnken , Eric Boe , Sunita Williams , and Douglas Hurley . The Demo-1 mission completed the last milestone of the Commercial Crew Development program, paving
11236-403: Was traced to a failed two-foot-long steel strut that held a helium pressure vessel , which broke free due to the force of acceleration . This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank , causing the failure. SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20 . In April 2016,
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