SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, launched on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight was performed under a funded agreement from NASA as the second Dragon demonstration mission in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The purpose of the COTS program is to develop and demonstrate commercial sources for cargo re-supply of the International Space Station (ISS). The Dragon C2+ spacecraft was the first American vehicle to visit the ISS since the end of the Space Shuttle program. It was also the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous and berth with another spacecraft.
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 DetailsFirst Dragon mission with complete spacecraft, first rendezvous mission, first berthing with ISS. After recovery, the capsule was put on display at Kennedy Space Center.
Dragon 1 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 56 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Payload consists of 2 second generation Earth-imaging satellites for BlackSky. They are part of a constellation of 60 Low Earth Orbit Earth imagin…
Note: Payload identity uncertain. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a success…
Maiden launch of the Terran 1 rocket developed by Relativity Space.
Small meteorology research satellites using GNSS radio occultation by CASIC subsidiary Xiyong Microelectronics Park. 01 & 02 were launched on Gala…
SES-18 & SES-19 are two communications satellites built by Northrop Grumman.
A batch of 52 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Gaofen is a series of civilian Earth observation satellites developed and launched for the China High-definition Earth Observation System (CHEOS), a …
Payload consists of 2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites for Capella Space. These 100-kg class satellites will expand Capella’s existing SA…
Chinese Earth observation satellite of unknown purposes.