The spacecraft tested the approach and automated docking procedures with the
International Space Station (ISS), consequent undocking from the ISS, full
re-entry,
splashdown and recovery steps to provide data requisite to subsequently qualify for flights transporting humans to the ISS. Life support systems were monitored throughout the test flight. The capsule was to be re-used in an
in-flight abort test, but it was destroyed in an accident during a static fire test of its
SuperDraco thrusters. Demo-1 was eventually slated for no earlier than December 2016, and then delayed several times throughout 2017. The first exact date was published by NASA in November 2018 to be 17 January 2019, but this was delayed until February 2019. The static fire took place on 24 January 2019 and the launch date was set to 23 February 2019. By the end of January 2019, the launch was delayed to no earlier than 2 March 2019 according to a
FCC filing by SpaceX for Dragon 2 capsule telemetry, tracking, and command. The Falcon 9 with Demo-1 rolled out to the
LC-39A on 28 February 2019 at around 15:00UTC and went vertical a few hours later. The spacecraft was launched on 2 March 2019 at 07:49:03UTC and docked with the ISS on 3 March 2019 at 10:51UTC. The Dragon 2 spacecraft undocked from the ISS on 8 March 2019 at 07:32UTC. The capsule separated from the trunk, performed its de-orbit burn, entered the
Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the
Atlantic Ocean about off Florida's east coast later that day at 13:45:08UTC. The capsule was recovered using SpaceX's recovery ship
GO Searcher and was returned to the mainland where it was examined and the data collected by the on board sensors was analyzed. == Payload ==