Darwin McDaniel
NASA and SpaceX announced plans to launch on March 2 the first unmanned test flight of the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
The space agency said Friday the Demonstration Mission-1 will take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which aims to utilize U.S.-built and operated private space vehicles to bring astronauts to the ISS and other low-Earth orbit destinations.
For Crew Dragon’s test flight, NASA will provide full mission coverage for activities from now through launch, docking, departure and splashdown.
In addition to SpaceX, NASA also works with Boeing to support crew transportation to and from the orbiting laboratory.
If Demo-1 turns successful, SpaceX is expected to conduct the second unmanned flight test of Crew Dragon in April to test the vehicle’s emergency abort system, The Verge reported Friday.
