A history-making space capsule has landed at Cape Canaveral's museum.
The Dragon Capsule by SpaceX -- the first commercial enterprise to launch, fly, land and recover a spacecraft from Earth orbit -- is now on display at the Air Force Space and Missile History Center.
Flown on a SpaceX rocket last December and unveiled for the first time to the public on Friday, the capsule is the forerunner to a NASA demonstration flight slated for this fall.
"Dragon, the first commercially manufactured, human-rated transport vehicle, may serve as a critical asset in the country's next-generation manned space exploration initiatives," SpaceX said in a statement.
The Hawthorne-Calif.-based firm -- officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. -- is on track to become the first U.S. commercial launch services company to successfully demonstrate and execute U.S.-based cargo transport capability to the International Space Station through Dragon.
Dragon can be viewed for a limited time at the Space and Missile History Center, a 3,200-square-foot facility that houses historic hardware and visual displays that highlight all active and deactivated Cape launch complexes from the past 50-plus years of flight.
The museum is located at 100 Space Port Way, accessible via Gate 1, also known as the South Gate of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
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Contact KenricWard at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
