On April 18, 2014, Falcon 9 and Dragon launched the CRS-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station. This mission marked Dragon’s fourth visit to the ISS and third official cargo resupply mission for NASA.

This was the first launch of a Dragon capsule on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, as previous launches used the smaller configuration It was also the first time the F9  has flown without a payload fairing and the first experimental flight test of an ocean landing of the first stage on a NASA/Dragon mission