SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Post Flight MMOD Inspection Campaign

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft performed 20 resupply flights to the International Space Station (ISS) between 2012 and 2020. After each mission, a team led by the NASA Johnson Space Center Hypervelocity Impact Technology (HVIT) Group inspected each Dragon vehicle exterior for hypervelocity impact damage. A general description of the inspected vehicle areas is provided as well as mission details such as exposure duration and launch dates. This paper documents the general inspection procedure for collection of data and the post inspection data analysis process. It also provides details of the observation data collected in addition to the spectroscopic analysis results of intact samples collected to discern the source of the impacting particle. A comparison between observed impacts and the expected number of damage features calculated by Bumper 3 with the latest micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) environments are also presented. Statistics on the >300 impact features documented in the database will provide insight into the depth to diameter ratios and other relationships. The quality of the comparison between the observations and code predictions are dependent on several factors. The paper provides details of each of these variables.