Dragon C2

Before Dragon C2 could approach the International Space Station on 22 May 2012, ISS mission controllers required it to complete a qualification course: three days of proximity maneuvers and communication checks, observed from a safe distance. On 25 May, the station's Canadarm2 reached out and captured the capsule, which was then berthed to the Harmony module's nadir port.

No commercial spacecraft had berthed with the station before. Dragon delivered approximately 525 kg of pressurized cargo, spent several days at the station, and splashed down in the Pacific on 31 May. Tucked aboard the upper stage, attached rather than inside the capsule itself, was a Celestis memorial canister carrying the cremated remains of 308 people — among them Gordon Cooper and James Doohan, whose ashes had been lost on Falcon 1 Flight 3 in August 2008.