The flight was performed under a funded agreement from NASA as the second Dragon demonstration mission in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

The purpose of the COTS program is to develop and demonstrate commercial sources for cargo re-supply of the International Space Station (ISS).

[12] On 1 March 2012, a fueled countdown test called a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), was successfully completed for the COTS 2 mission.

[15] NASA approved Dragon's flight software on 11 May, solving an issue that had previously been responsible for several launch date postponements.

[18] The launch window was nearly instantaneous, for fuel-efficiency reasons, leaving little margin for error due to fuel consumption restrictions caused by the extra manoeuvres required to certify the Dragon spaceship before attempting to berth with the ISS.

[19] Dragon's launch window could have been longer, but the extra fuel required to catch the ISS would have likely surpassed safety margins, due to the pre-berthing tests.

[19] Next, Dragon opened its bay door which housed its grapple fixture and relative navigation sensors, a thermal imager and the LIDAR based DragonEye.

[30] A free drift demonstration then began, allowing the spacecraft to float freely without using its thrusters which would normally correct its orbital path.

[32] On flight day three, Dragon performed height adjustment burn 2 (HA-2) at 07:58 UTC, to get within about 10 km (6.2 mi) of the ISS, the "communication zone.

[37] Once the fly-under was completed, Dragon fired its thrusters to begin a loop out in front, above and then behind the station in a racetrack oval pattern at a distance between 7 and 10 km (4.3 and 6.2 mi).

[37] After Dragon cleared the station's vicinity, NASA approved the berthing to occur on day 4, meaning all the original COTS 2 mission requirements were met.

[40] NASA's Mission Control Houston team then gave SpaceX the go ahead to perform another set of burns that brought Dragon to within 1,400 m (4,600 ft) of the station.

The SpaceX flight control team in Hawthorne, California, commanded the spacecraft to approach the station from its hold position.

[40] The crew, using the command panel, then instructed Dragon to retreat, and the spacecraft moved back down to the hold point.

[40] This test ensured that Dragon's range to the ISS was accurate, and that the flight control team saw the spacecraft's acceleration and braking perform as expected.

[40] Another decision was made in Houston, and Dragon was permitted to enter the Keep-Out Sphere (KOS), a virtual area 200 m (660 ft) around the station intended to prevent collision with the orbiting complex.

[43] A final decision was made, and the Mission Control Houston team notified the crew they were go to capture Dragon.

[43] At that point, from the Cupola module, Expedition 31 crew member Don Pettit used the station's Mobile Servicing System (Canadarm2) to reach out and grapple the Dragon spacecraft at 13:56 UTC over Western Australia.

[46] Pettit and Russian cosmonaut and station commander Oleg Kononenko were the first crew members to enter the Dragon.

"[48] Dragon spent approximately six days berthed to the space station, allowing astronauts time to unload its cargo.

[53] The Dragon capsule splashed down into the Pacific Ocean about 900 km (560 mi) from the Baja Peninsula at approximately 11:42 EDT (15:42 UTC) and was recovered by a small fleet of recovery vessels from the contractor hired by SpaceX, American Marine.

[54][55][56] On 5 June, the Dragon capsule arrived at the Port of Los Angeles and was transported by truck to McGregor, Texas.

[58] On 18 July 2012, the COTS 2 Dragon was temporarily displayed to an invited audience inside a tent, in front of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

[59] On 7 September 2012, Steve Jurvetson, a member on the board of directors at SpaceX, reported that the C2+ capsule was undergoing post-flight analysis back in McGregor.

[62][63] The historic Dragon C2+ capsule was ultimately placed on permanent display hanging from the ceiling at SpaceX headquarters.

[68] An unannounced addition to the cargo manifest, made public after the launch, was a small canister, affixed to the second stage's top, containing the 1-gram ash remains of over 300 people including Project Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper, and James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty on the television show Star Trek in the 1960s.

[70] The second stage and the burial canister remained in the initial orbit Dragon C2+ was inserted to,[71] and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere a month later.

[74] Items from SHERE included a toolbox, fluid modules, stowage trays, cables and a keyboard, and science data recordings.