The Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit was a boilerplate version of the Dragon spacecraft. After using it for ground tests to rate Dragon's shape and mass in various tests, SpaceX launched it into low Earth orbit on the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX used the launch to evaluate the aerodynamic conditions on the spacecraft and performance of the carrier rocket in a real-world launch scenario, ahead of Dragon flights for NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
The Falcon 9 v1.0 first stage was used on the first five Falcon 9 launches, and powered by nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines arranged in a 3x3 pattern.
See Falcon DetailsSpace Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.
INFO WIKIA batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Malligyong-1 (meaning "Telescope-1") is a North Korean satellite officially declared to be for military reconnaissance purposes. It failed to reach o…
Fifth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.
This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS …
Geostationary communications satellite built by Airbus Defense and Space and based on the Eurostar Neo platform for Arabsat.
The Kondor-FKA is a small civilian radar Earth observation satellite designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a civilian counterpart to the Kondor-E sate…
Last two operational (TROPICS-06 & TROPICS-07) satellites for NASA's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a…
Virgin Galactic return to space mission ahead of the first commercial flight.
Third flight of the KSLV-II "Nuri" launch vehicle, carrying NEXTSat-2 as well as SNIPE A through D.
Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.