Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon spacecraft completed its first successful orbital flight in December 2010. In May 2012, a Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 and became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with and be captured by the International Space Station.
The spacecraft delivered supplies under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program. Unlike many earlier cargo vehicles, Dragon was designed to return substantial cargo to Earth, making it useful for transporting experiments and other materials back from the station.
Dragon 1 was retired after the final resupply mission in 2020. SpaceX’s later Crew Dragon spacecraft adapted the Dragon design for astronauts and became a separate human-spaceflight vehicle.