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<\/p>\nSpaceX took a major step towards ending the United States\u2019 human spaceflight gap Saturday, with the launch of their Crew Dragon spacecraft on its first demonstration flight. Flying without astronauts aboard for its Demo-1 test flight, Crew Dragon lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 02:49:03 Eastern Time (07:49 UTC) atop a Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s launch has been years in the making and also represents a step forward for SpaceX\u2019s ambition of taking humans to Mars through the demonstration of a spacecraft that can carry a crew to orbit and return them safely to the Earth \u2013 albeit on a smaller scale than the Starship vehicle that SpaceX plans to develop for Mars missions.<\/p>\n
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Dragon 2 on the pad \u2013 via Thomas Burghardt for NSF\/L2<\/p>\n
In the shorter term, Demo-1 \u2013 or DM-1 \u2013 will complete qualification objectives for NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Development program that \u2013 subject to a separate test of the spacecraft\u2019s launch abort system \u2013 will put Dragon in good stead to carry its first crew to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year.<\/p>\n
Crew Dragon \u2013 which is also known as Dragon 2 \u2013 is an evolution of the current Dragon spacecraft used for cargo and logistics missions to the space station under Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts. In this guise Dragon has already flown eighteen times \u2013 making two test flights under NASA\u2019s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, before beginning operational cargo delivery flights under CRS.<\/p>\n
Dragon\u2019s first flight occurred in December 2010, when the spacecraft completed three orbits around the Earth before a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Seventeen months later, the C2+ demo flight saw Dragon fly to the International Space Station for the first time. CRS missions began in October 2012 and will continue until next year, when a cargo version of Dragon 2 will take over under the next phase of the CRS contracts.<\/p>\n
Dragon is named after Puff the Magic Dragon, referencing skepticism that SpaceX would be able to realize its ambitions \u2013 in the words of founder Elon Musk \u201cpeople said I was high if though [sic] it could work, so I named it after their insult\u201d. The Falcon rocket that carries it is named after the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.<\/p>\n
Like the existing version of Dragon, Dragon 2 consists of a pressurized capsule and an unpressurized trunk. The capsule can seat up to seven astronauts and can be reused for future missions after a successful landing. Although SpaceX considered land-based landings during the early stages of Crew Dragon\u2019s development, they have settled on splashdown and recovery at sea, like the current version of Dragon.<\/p>\n
Power is generated by solar panels mounted on the outside of the Trunk. This differs from the current Dragon, which uses deployable solar arrays. Another difference between the two spacecraft is the nosecone, which on Dragon 2 hinges open to provide access to the spacecraft\u2019s docking port. Earlier Dragons jettison their nosecones to reveal a Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM).<\/p>\n