The Dragon spacecraft 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.

falcon 9

OVERVIEW

HEIGHT	70 m / 229.6 ft
DIAMETER	3.7 m /12 ft
mass	549,054 kg / 1,207,920 lb
payload to leo	22,800 kg / 50,265 lb
payload to gto	8,300 kg / 18,300 lb
payload to mars	4,020 kg / 8,860 lb

falcon 9

second stage

The second stage, powered by a single Merlin Vacuum Engine, delivers Falcon 9's payload to the desired orbit. The second stage engine ignites a few seconds after stage separation, and can be restarted multiple times to place multiple payloads into different orbits.

thrust

981 kN / 220,500 lbf

falcon 9

second stage

thrust

981 kN / 220,500 lbf

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TAKING HUMANS TO SPACE

In 2020, SpaceX returned America’s ability to fly NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station on American vehicles for the first time since 2011. In addition to flying astronauts to space for NASA, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft can also carry commercial astronauts to Earth orbit, the ISS or beyond.

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ENGINES

MERLIN

sealevel | vaccume

Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use on its Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. Merlin engines use a rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merlin engine was originally designed for recovery and reuse.

PROPALLANT	LOX / RP-1
THRUST	885 kN / 190,000 lbf

DRAGON PARACHUTE SYSTEM

The Dragon spacecraft is equipped with two drogue parachutes to stabilize the spacecraft following reentry and four main parachutes to further decelerate the spacecraft prior to landing.

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