Dragon is a
spacecraft developed by
SpaceX. During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit. On May 25, 2012, a cargo variant of Dragon
became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully
rendezvous with and be attached to the
International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under
NASA's
Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012.
The spacecraft is currently launched atop a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket. Earlier missions, through SpaceX CRS-2, used the original Falcon 9 rocket. Dragon has been launched on seven missions, with one, SpaceX CRS-7, suffering a launch failure.
Dragon was renewed for the second round of the Commercial Resupply Services in 2016. It is also the basis for the Dragon V2 manned spacecraft, which was selected under the CCDev program in 2014 to deliver astronauts to the ISS.
Glynn S. Lunney (November 27, 1936 – March 19, 2021) was an American
NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its foundation in 1958, Lunney was a
flight director during the
Gemini and
Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the
Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the
Apollo 13 crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the
Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the
Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a Vice President of the
United Space Alliance.
Lunney was a key figure in America's manned space program from Project Mercury through the coming of the Space Shuttle. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the National Space Trophy, which he was given by the Rotary Club in 2005. Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director, described Lunney as "a true hero of the space age", saying that he was "one of the outstanding contributors to the exploration of space of the last four decades".