SpaceX Launches the Dragon! and My dad's ashes!
COTS Demo Flight 2 is the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, Dragon C2+, and the third overall flight for the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon C2+ flight was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on 22 May 2012. It is expected to be the first American vehicle to visit the International Space Station (ISS) since the end of the Space Shuttle program, and the first commercial spacecraft ever to rendezvous and be berthed with another spacecraft. The flight is under contract to NASA as the second Dragon mission in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) phase one program. The purpose of the COTS program is to develop and demonstrate commercial sources for cargo re-supply of the ISS. Initially, the mission was to carry out a fly-by of the ISS, practice rendezvous maneuvers and berthing communications, and return to Earth. In July 2011, NASA gave tentative approval for combining...