Dragon
The spacecraft that returned human spaceflight to American soil.
Crew & cargo spacecraft, launched atop Falcon 9 · first flight December 8, 2010 (Dragon 1) · March 2, 2019 (Dragon 2, uncrewed) · May 30, 2020 (Dragon 2, crewed)
Dragon isn't a rocket — it's the spacecraft that rides on top of one. Built to carry cargo and crew safely to and from orbit, Dragon is the only U.S. spacecraft capable of returning significant cargo to Earth, and since 2020 the only commercially built vehicle ever to carry NASA astronauts.
The current generation, Dragon 2, comes in two variants sharing a common capsule design: Crew Dragon, fitted with seats, displays, and life support for up to seven people, and Cargo Dragon, optimized for pressurized and unpressurized freight to the International Space Station.
Dragon's most distinctive safety feature is built into its hull rather than bolted on top: eight SuperDraco abort engines, embedded in the capsule's side walls, can fire within milliseconds to pull the crew away from a failing rocket at any point from the pad to orbit — a capability demonstrated live during an in-flight abort test in January 2020.
Full technical breakdown
Dimensions
- Height
- 8.1 m (26.7 ft)capsule + trunk
- Diameter
- 4 m (13 ft)
- Launch mass
- ~12,519 kgCrew Dragon, fueled
- Sidewall angle
- 15° cone, blunt-body reentry shape
Crew & cargo
- Crew capacity
- Up to 7NASA missions typically fly 4
- Pressurized cargo up
- ~3,300 kg
- Cargo returned to Earth
- ~3,000 kgone of few vehicles capable of this
- Mission duration
- Up to 210 days docked to ISS
Safety systems
- Launch abort
- 8 SuperDraco engines, full-envelope abort
- Parachutes
- 4 Mark 3 main chutes for splashdown
- Heat shield
- PICA-X ablative thermal protection
- Docking
- Autonomous, NASA Docking System compatible
Power & propulsion
- Solar arrays
- 4, deployable from the trunk
- Maneuvering thrusters
- 16 Draco engines
- Trunk
- Unpressurized cargo bay, jettisoned before reentry
Engines
SuperDraco
×871 kN (16,000 lbf) each per engine
MMH / NTO, hypergolic
Embedded in the capsule wall in redundant pairs; provide full launch-abort capability from the pad to orbit.
Draco
×16400 N (90 lbf) each per engine
MMH / NTO, hypergolic
Used for orbital maneuvering, attitude control, and the final approach to the ISS.
Defining features
Built-in launch abort
Unlike tower-mounted abort systems, Dragon's SuperDracos are integrated into the hull itself, ready to fire at any phase of ascent and doubling as propulsive landing thrusters in early designs.
Fully autonomous docking
Dragon flies itself to a soft docking with the ISS, with the crew or ground controllers able to take manual control at any point if needed.
Reusable capsule
Each Dragon capsule is designed to fly multiple missions, refurbished between flights rather than discarded after a single use — a first for a human-rated spacecraft. Crew Dragon Freedom alone has now flown five missions, including Crew-4, Crew-9, two private Axiom flights, and Crew-12.
Return cargo capability
Dragon is one of the only spacecraft in the world able to bring meaningful cargo — from science experiments to failed hardware — back down to Earth intact.
Dragon timeline
- 2010
Dragon 1 debut
The original cargo Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to orbit and be recovered.
- 2012
First ISS berthing
Dragon delivers cargo to the space station under NASA's COTS program.
- 2019
Demo-1
Crew Dragon's first uncrewed flight docks autonomously with the ISS.
- 2020
In-flight abort test
A Dragon capsule fires its SuperDracos mid-flight, proving the abort system live.
- 2020
Demo-2
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley fly Crew Dragon to the ISS — the first crewed U.S. orbital launch since 2011.
- 2021
Inspiration4
The first all-civilian orbital spaceflight, with no professional astronauts aboard.
- 2026
Crew-12
Dragon Freedom carries its fifth crew — NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos astronauts — to the ISS, the 20th crewed Dragon flight to date.