SpaceX Says Dragon Surpassed NASA Space Shuttle In Terms Of Most Visits To ISS, Time Spent in Space

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX said on Wednesday that its Dragon 2 fleet spent more time in Space than NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet.

What Happened: As of June 6, Dragon 2 fleet cumulatively completed 1,324 days in orbit, surpassing the record set by the Space Shuttle fleet, SpaceX said.

Dragon's 28th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on Monday marked the fleet’s 38th trip to the orbiting lab surpassing the U.S. record set by the Space Shuttle for most visits to the station by a spacecraft type, the rocket manufacturing company added on Twitter.

However, as per SpaceX website, Dragon has had only 36 visits to the space station.

Why It Matters: SpaceX's Dragon docked at the Space Station for the first time on May 25, 2012, to become the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS. 

In 2020, the Dragon also became the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley docked on ISS in May 2020 and returned to Earth 64 days later in August.

The Space Shuttle, meanwhile, launched first in April 1981 and had its final landing thirty years later. The fleet, composed of Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, flew 135 missions in the meantime and helped construct the space station. On July 21, 2011, Atlantis rolled to a stop at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the fleet’s final landing.

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