The first commercial cargo mission to visit the International Space Station was SpaceX’s Dragon mission in 2012.
The mission, officially called SpaceX CRS-1 or SpX-1, launched on October 8, 2012, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was SpaceX’s first operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract and carried supplies, experiments, and equipment to the ISS.
Dragon had already made a demonstration flight to the station earlier in 2012, known as Dragon C2+, but CRS-1 was the first regular contracted cargo-delivery mission. The spacecraft was uncrewed and returned cargo to Earth after being captured by the station’s robotic Canadarm2.
A common mix-up is confusing 2012 with 2014, when SpaceX began flying additional CRS missions more regularly. The mission’s name also does not mean it was the first Dragon launch: it was the first operational cargo mission in the NASA resupply series.