![nasa space shuttle lanch nasa space shuttle lanch](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2UXmWV9U0N8/TbrTyqkzyRI/AAAAAAAAAxY/wIyZDGvNthY/s1600/11048.rocket.jpg)
During this first mission, Falcon 9’s second launch, Dragon entered orbit - a first for commercial spaceships. The first time Dragon took to the sky - in December 2010 - also marked the first COTS and CRS launches. Dragons are propelled into orbit using SpaceX’s flagship rocket, the Falcon 9. SpaceX was awarded $1.6 billion dollars for twelve of the company’s partially reusable cargo spacecraft: Dragon. These cover individual flights funded by NASA for the delivery of cargo to the ISS using commercially operated spacecraft. Later, NASA assigned one of the first Commercial Resupply Services contracts to SpaceX. “Each company developed a launch vehicle and a cargo spacecraft that could rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.” “In preparation for the end of the Space Shuttle, NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services started in 2006 by investing SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation - now Northrop Grumman - capabilities to carry cargo to and from Low Earth Orbit,” explains Stone. To get people and goods into space, NASA needed a new, cost-effective way to keep the ISS and other near-Earth space research and exploration operational without paying out for a shuttle itself. Since 1981, NASA’s Space Shuttle Program was responsible for transporting humans and cargo to and from space - but in 2011, the Space Shuttle was going to retire. But it also ignited a debate about public and private partnerships for space science that is still raging today. These achievements cemented SpaceX’s place as NASA’s go-to private partner for launching crew and goods up to the International Space Station.
![nasa space shuttle lanch nasa space shuttle lanch](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmjiR8KCAAAgort.jpg)
Dennis Stone, a commercial space executive at NASA who was directly involved, says that the mission “heralded a new age of commercial space services.” It was also the first commercial spaceship to return cargo back to Earth.Īt the time, Musk reportedly stated in a press conference: “This mission heralds the dawn of a new era of space exploration, one in which there is a significant commercial space element.” That mission, the Dragon C2/3, was also the first commercial spacecraft to dock with another spacecraft in orbit - the International Space Station, in SpaceX’s case, on May 25, 2012. The achievement fundamentally altered the course of the next decade of space exploration.
![nasa space shuttle lanch nasa space shuttle lanch](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9sUwFGNJvviJks7jNQ7AWc-1200-80.jpg)
The company became the fourth entity, after the United States, Russia, and China, to launch a spacecraft into orbit and, on May 31 of that year, return it back to Earth. Ten years ago on May 22, 2012, Elon Musk’s SpaceX made history.