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NASA hopes that the crew dragon and a capsule manufactured by Boeing, Starliner, will begin flying US astronauts later this year, thus ending the US's long-standing dependence on Russia for trans-shipment of crews to the International Space Station.
The first Crew Dragon test mission began early Saturday, and a risky and crucial test took place on Sunday morning when the capsule was docked at the International Space Station.
Everything went well – and a lot of things were on board.
This was a reminder that "there are still human lives in danger," Patrick Forrester, head of NASA's astronaut office at the Johnson Space Center, said last week.
The mooring maneuver, which required millisecond accuracy, was also a first for SpaceX.
For years, the company used its smallest Dragon 1 capsule to transport supplies to the space station, but during these missions, a long robotic arm reached out and guided the spacecraft to its port.
Crew Dragon, however, used its on-board navigation systems to align with its docking and locking port, while traveling at speeds greater than 20 times the speed of sound.
"They wanted us to take action to protect the space station, close one or two hatches and prepare the crew to board the Soyuz," said Joel Montalbano, NASA's Deputy Director for the ISS, Evoking the crew capsule Soyuz allow cosmonauts to make an emergency exit if things went wrong.
Crew Dragon will spend five days in connection with the space station.
Then comes a final landmark test: on Friday, March 8, the capsule will bomb the Earth 's atmosphere, deploy parachutes and land softly in the Atlantic Ocean.
The spacecraft will perform a safe descent and hold well while landing at sea. Crew Dragon is the only capsule designed to dive at sea rather than land on land, from the Soyuz capsule veteran of Russia and Boeing's next Starliner.
If all goes well, NASA astronauts could embark on Crew Dragon this summer.
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