Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to reach the space station
SpaceX's Dragon capsule berthed with the International Space Station, a first for a private company.
Archive entry. This article looks back at an event from May 25, 2012. It was drafted with AI assistance from public records and is being fact-checked. See our About page.
On May 25, 2012, SpaceX's Dragon capsule was captured by the International Space Station's robotic arm and berthed to the station. It had launched on a Falcon 9 three days earlier.
No commercial spacecraft had done this before. Until then, only national space agencies had visited the station.
The flight was a test under NASA's commercial cargo program. Dragon returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, and regular resupply missions followed.
