COTS Demo Flight 2

COTS Demo Flight 2 was the second test-flight for SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon cargo spacecraft, Dragon C2+, and the third overall flight for the company’s two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. It was lanuned from Cape Canaveral on 22 May 2012.

• It was the first American vehicle to visit the International Space Station (ISS) since the end of the Space Shuttle program.
• It was the first commercial spacecraft ever to rendezvous and berth with another spacecraft. Its purpose was to develop and demonstrate commercial sources for cargo re-supply of the ISS. In this mission, the Dragon rendezvoused with the ISS and then was successfully captured using the Canadarm2.
• It was berthed to the station later that day, using the robotic arm. Dragon stayed for almost a six-days: enough time for the astronauts to unload cargo, and then reload it with Earth-bound cargo.

On 31 May, 2012  it unberthed from the ISS and returned to Earth via a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. All the COTS objectives were successfully completed, and the Falcon 9-Dragon system will be certified to start regular cargo delivery missions to the ISS.

inputs: Wikipedia