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The Mission Control system for the Dragon capsule, used on

Dec. 19, 2017 by Katherine Berry

The Mission Control system for the Dragon capsule, used on Dragon's first mission, was already well in place when the first two Dragon spacecraft were launched into orbit and landed at 9:22am ET. By 9:45am, Dragon was back at its launch point, in complete control. At 8:45am, the astronauts were back on the spacecraft for a second, two-month mission, which included a landing on the International Space Station, three missions with a human crew on board, and a successful landing on the International Space Station.

The new Dragon launch was so crucial to the mission that NASA took the first steps to fully plan the Dragon launch for a future mission. The mission director, Mike O'Connell, announced the final steps in an email to Dragon readers on Tuesday evening. The mission director also confirmed that the first set of landing conditions for Dragon were still under review. "This is the first time that we have ever landed on a spacecraft that was designed for such a unique flight environment," O'Connell said.

Dragon launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday morning. NASA and SpaceX both announced that the first two Dragon spacecraft will launch to the International Space Station in December, and in March Dragon is expected to launch into orbit at its first scheduled launch at 3:15am EDT. NASA also announced that the Dragon spacecraft, called the Dragon Dragonfly, will join the International Space Station in 2015 to ferry astronauts to the space station. The Dragon spacecraft will orbit the ISS before returning to Earth after a four-month period of orbit.

The Dragonfly will replace the Space Launch System at the International Space Station, the first of the five Dragon spacecraft to be launched from the station. The Dragonfly is designed to allow astronauts to send a spacecraft as it is launched from the station, allowing for more than a year of flight time. The Dragonfly is powered by a fusion reactor, which can send two solid-fueled fusion engines to produce a liquid and liquid-fueled liquid fuel. The Dragonfly will be the first Dragon spacecraft that will be flown by the International Space Station and also the only spacecraft that will be powered by liquid-fueled fusion by 2020.

Dragon is the third spacecraft to successfully land on the International Space Station. On Friday, SpaceX successfully delivered a Dragon spacecraft to the station, the second crewed spacecraft to successfully land on the station, and the first crewed spacecraft to successfully land on the International Space Station.

Dragon launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday