In news
SpaceX and NASA launched Dragon’s first operational crew mission (Crew-1) to the International Space Station (ISS)
Key highlights
- Mission called Crew-1 marks the first operational mission of the Crew Dragon, opening up the possibilities of the company regularly sending people to and from the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.
- The Falcon 9 rocket(Dragon capsule on top) named ‘Resilience’ was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
About Dragon Spacecraft
- The SpaceX Dragon, also known as Dragon 1 or Cargo Dragon, was a class of reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company.
- It is capable of carrying up to 7 passengers to and from Earth orbit, and beyond.
- It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.
- The Crew Dragon is equipped with 16 Draco thrusters that are used to manoeuvre the vehicle in orbit. Each Draco is capable of producing 90 pounds of force in the vacuum of space.