Dragon Credit - NASA

Commercial space capsule being developed by SpaceX as a shuttle to take crews and cargo to the International Space Station and the Bigelow Commercial Station from 2010 on.

In September 2006 SpaceX was named as one of two winners of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition. The SpaceX award was $278 million for three flight demonstrations of the Falcon 9 booster carrying the Dragon space capsule. These were to occur in 2009. The third flight would demonstrated unmanned rendezvous and docking of the Dragon capsule with the International Space Station. The crew aboard the station would unload the capsule and fill it with return cargo. The Dragon would undock and return this cargo to earth.

An option to the agreement would fund three demonstration flights of the manned person of the Dragon, which could carry seven crew or a mixture of crew and cargo to the station and back. SpaceX estimated ISS resupply business could be worth as much as $500 million per year after retirement of the US shuttle in 2010.

The cargo and crew versions of Dragon were nearly identical, except for the special provisions added to the manned version: a crew escape system, a life support system, and displays and controls allowing the pilot to take manual control if necessary.

The Falcon 9/Dragon combination was also foreseen as a shuttle to the Bigelow commercial space station / hotel. Both the Falcon 9 and Dragon were to be fully reusable. The booster's two stages and the Dragon would all use parachutes for landings on water.

Development Cost $: 278.000 million. Crew Size: 7. Length: 6.10 m (20.00 ft). Basic Diameter: 3.60 m (11.80 ft). Mass: 8,000 kg (17,600 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9.