The Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit was a boilerplate version of the Dragon spacecraft. After using it for ground tests to rate Dragon's shape and mass in various tests, SpaceX launched it into low Earth orbit on the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX used the launch to evaluate the aerodynamic conditions on the spacecraft and performance of the carrier rocket in a real-world launch scenario, ahead of Dragon flights for NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
The Falcon 9 v1.0 first stage was used on the first five Falcon 9 launches, and powered by nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines arranged in a 3x3 pattern.
See DetailsNo parachutes were observed during descent. Apparently the Falcon 9 first stage hit the water rather hard.Observation airfcraft confirmed the debris field.
Result: B0003 did not land successfully.Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.
INFO WIKIA batch of Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group. …
USSF-106 is a mission for the United States Space Force. The launch will deploy various payloads directly into geosynchronous orbit, including the NT…
First of EUMETSAT's second generation of Metop weather satellites.
Second of a three launches contract for Amazon's Kuiper low Earth orbit satellite internet constellation. 24 satellites are on board.
11 LEO communications satellites for Chinese car manufacturer Geely Automotive for testing autonomous driving/inter-vehicle communication services. T…
Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.
A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…
A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
NS-34 is the 14th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 34th in its history.
SpaceX Crew-11 is the eleventh crewed operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial …