SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft.
Created: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2025-09-06
Company - SpaceX
Product/Service - Crew Dragon
- Classification
- Human Spaceflight & Landers
- Category
- Human Spaceflight
Transport Service (Earth-LEO)
- Fields
- Space Tourism
Reusable
Space Capsule
- Status
- Active
- First launch
- 2020
Crew Dragon
- HEIGHT: 8.1 m / 26.7 ft
- DIAMETER: 4 m / 13 ft
- CAPSULE VOLUME: 9.3 m³ / 328 ft³
- TRUNK VOLUME: 37 m³ / 1300 ft³
- LAUNCH PAYLOAD MASS: 6,000 kg / 13,228 lbs
- RETURN PAYLOAD MASS: 3,000 kg / 6,614 lbs
Fram2 completes polar orbit private astronaut mission, 2025-04-04.
Status Comment
Product/Service - DragonLab
- Classification
- Cargo Transportation & Landers
- Category
- Microgravity Flight Service (LEO)
Microgravity Flight Service (Reusable Satellite)
- Fields
- Reusable
Space Capsule
- Status
- Dormant
- First launch
- Dormant
DragonLab
A free-flying, reusable spacecraft capable of hosting pressurized and unpressurized payloads to and from space.
DragonLab provides a platform for in-space experimentation, including recovery of pressurized and some unpressurized payloads, as well as deployment of small spacecraft. As a complete system, DragonLab provides for all aspects of operation: propulsion, power, thermal control, environmental control, avionics, communications, thermal protection, flight software, guidance, navigation and control, entry, descent and landing and recovery.
Created: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2025-09-06
Product/Service - Starship, Starship HLS, Starship Human Landing System
- Classification
- Human Spaceflight & Landers
- Category
- Human Landing System
Transport Service (Earth-LEO)
Transport Service (Re-Entry)
Transport Service (LEO-Moon)
Point-to-point
- Fields
- In-Space Transportation
Transport Service (In-Space)
Space Tourism
Moon
Mars
Reusable
Space Capsule
- Status
- Development, Launched
- First launch
- 2024
Starship
SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy Rocket represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to service all Earth orbit needs as well as the Moon and Mars.
Starship Human Landing System
One of the 3 awardees for the NASA Lunar Human Landing System.
Starfall In-Orbit Drug Research
- SpaceX is working on a program to use its mammoth Starship rocket to develop commercial products in space, potentially opening up a new business line for the world’s most valuable private startup, according to people familiar with the matter.
- Under the plan, internally called Starfall, SpaceX’s Starship rocket would bring products such as pharmaceutical components to space in small, uncrewed capsules, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.
- Starship would then deploy the capsules, which would spend time in orbit before reentering the atmosphere, where they could be recovered back on Earth, the person added.
- The SpaceX program is still in the early stages of development and the plans could change.
- SpaceX plans to make the program operational roughly by the end of the decade, one of the people said. The company is in talks with potential customers for the service, the people said.
DARPA LunA-10 Program Study, 2023-2024
Starship In-Space Refueling
DIU studying applications of SpaceX Starship in-space refueling, 2025-02-06.
- A Defense Department unit is examining how SpaceX’s Starship vehicle could be used to support a broader architecture of in-space refueling.
- “You can refuel on orbit in LEO and add nine kilometers per second to your vehicle. You pretty much unlock the solar system at that point in time.”
- Another Starship application that DIU is exploring is what he called “novel responsive space delivery,” which he defined as delivering unique payloads using rockets. The Air Force Research Lab is already studying “rocket cargo” concepts, like Starship, through a Vanguard program for point-to-point transportation
Status Comment
As of late 2024, Starship has reached space but suborbital trajectories.
Notes
- Blue Origin and SpaceX start work on cargo versions of crewed lunar landers, SpaceNews, 2024-01-21.
- Air Force rocket cargo initiative marches forward despite questions about feasibility, SpaceNews, 2024-02-01.
- SpaceX is now offering Starship services to the red planet.
Created: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2025-09-06
Product/Service - Dragon, Dragon 2, Cargo Dragon
- Classification
- Cargo Transportation & Landers
- Category
- Transport Service (Earth-LEO)
Transport Service (Re-Entry)
- Fields
- Reusable
Space Capsule
- Status
- Active
- First launch
- 2010
Dragon is a free-flying spacecraft designed to deliver both cargo and people to orbiting destinations.
Dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial spacecraft in history to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and safely return cargo to Earth, a feat previously achieved only by governments.
Last first generation Dragon launched in March 2020.
Research Proposals
- FITNESS-FOCUSED RESEARCH - Innovative solutions to increase efficiency and effectiveness, specifically focused on time efficiencies, resources required, equipment and protocols, and efficacy assessments.
- EXPLORATION-FOCUSED RESEARCH - Studies assessing tools that enhance health and well-being during long-duration missions, specifically focused on medical capabilities, virtual or augmented reality as a multipurpose tool, inflight health, and just-in-time training.
Created: 2022-02-23
Updated: 2025-09-06
Product/Service - Starlink, Starshield, Marslink
- Classification
- Space Utilities
- Category
- In-Space Communications Relay
Deep Space Communications
- Fields
- Utility
In-Space Internet
Off-Earth
Mars
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2018
NASA Selects Commercial Service Studies to Enable Mars Robotic Science, 2024-05-01.
- Next-generation relay services.
- Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California — adapt Earth-orbit communication satellites for Mars.
Created: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2025-09-06
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News, Research, Projects and Patents
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