First test flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled for January 2019

Washington, November 23: The first flight test of an unmanned SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for January, NASA announced. During the test flight, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will move to international space stations, while each element of the system will be checked and evaluated. If all goes well, a human mission involving two NASA astronauts will take place in June.

The test marks a milestone for the United States, which has not been able to deliver astronauts independently in space since 2011, the year of withdrawal from the space shuttle program.

Read also | After Elon Musk has seen grass smoke, NASA will look at Occupational Safety Culture at SpaceX

The test flight in SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, called Demo-1, is scheduled for January 7, 2019 at 11:57 pm ET. A Falcon 9 rocket will be launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will transport the capsule to the International Space Station. The space agency will carefully monitor the performance of the rocket, the dragon's crew, the ground system and the docking process.

Before demo-2, however, NASA will perform an interruption test during the flight. Meanwhile, the disconnected Crew Dragon's interruption system will be used by capsizing the top capsule of a Falcon 9 just after its launch, according to Space News.