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SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launches for the first time

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Friday, December 10, 2010

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Artist's conception of the Dragon spacecraft approaching the International Space Station.
Image: NASA.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a commercial spaceflight company, has successfully launched its Dragon spacecraft on its maiden voyage to orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday. The launch was followed by a successful landing of the unmanned capsule in the Pacific Ocean hours later.

During its maiden flight, the Dragon capsule completed about two orbits around the Earth and executed successful de-orbiting operations, followed by successful reentry, parachute deployment, and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.

The Dragon spacecraft is the first commercial space transport certified to reach orbit and return to Earth. The successful flight of the Dragon spacecraft makes SpaceX the first private firm to launch its own craft to orbit and return it to Earth.

The Dragon spacecraft is part of a contract between the California-based commercial spaceflight company and the United States' space agency, NASA, to provide transport for crews and supplies to and from the International Space Station.


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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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