SpaceX Dragon C108 is a Cargo Dragon space capsule built by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

. It is the first Dragon capsule to be flown three times, having its third launch in 2019. C108 was first used on CRS-6, and then used again for the CRS-13 and CRS-18 missions. It was the first capsule to be used a third flight, marking a milestone in SpaceX's drive to reduce space launch costs through reusing hardware.

History

C108 was built as the eighth production Dragon capsule. This new Dragon was launched on the CRS-6 mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). It splashed down on May 21, 2015 and was successfully retrieved. To prepare for its second flight, it had its

heatshield In engineering, a heat shield is a component designed to protect an object or a human operator from being burnt or overheated by dissipating, reflecting, and/or absorbing heat. The term is most often used in reference to exhaust heat management an ...

replaced while the hull,

avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...

, and Draco thrusters were refurbished. The refurbished Dragon was relaunched in December 15, 2017 for the CRS-13 mission. Following an almost month-long stay, C108 landed on January 13, 2018. After undergoing another refurbishment, C108 was launched again in July 2019 for the CRS-18 mission. It landed for the final time on August 27, 2019 and was retired.

Flights

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon C108 Individual space vehicles SpaceX Dragon