1. The Dragon 2 spacecraft is the vehicle that will transport my crew mates and myself to the Space Station. It’s a vehicle. Pure and simple
2. The story began with Dragon 1, a cargo spacecraft developed by the SpaceX Corporation. It was used to send cargo payloads for NASA to the International Space Station after the space shuttles were retired in 2011 as part of the NASA COTS program – a program aimed at including private corporations in the space supply business.
3. Dragon 1 was a space trailblazer. It was the first commercial spacecraft to be launched into orbit and return to Earth (in December 2010); on its second mission (May 2012) it became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station;
4. Over its years in service, the Dragon spacecraft have been launched on 22 missions, 20 of which have been supply missions to the International Space Station
5. In March 2020 the Dragon 1 lifted off on its last mission and was replaced by Dragon 2
6. Dragon 2 was built following NASA’s decision to use it also for launching NASA astronauts to the Space Station as part of the CCDev program (a program of including private corporations in the manned space travel business)
7. Dragon 2 is based on Dragon 1 but, in contrast to its predecessor, it is designed to transport up to four astronauts (or 6 tons of cargo or a combination of the two) into low orbit and back to Earth
8. On May 30, 2020, the first manned mission of the Dragon 2 spacecraft lifted off - the SpaceX Demo-2 mission. This was the first manned space mission that used a privately-built spacecraft
9. The fourth manned mission of the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft was launched on September 16 2021. This was the first mission in history that did not include even one “professional” astronaut in its crew (three days were spent orbiting Earth)
10. There are three Dragon 2 spacecraft. The first is named Resilience. We will be flying on the second, named Endeavor. The third, which has yet to be named, will do its maiden voyage at the end of October with NASA’s third crew. Crew three will be receiving us at the Space Station when we arrive there in February 2022
