This is SpaceX's first spaceship crewed spaceship.

With its stocky nose and matte black fins, SpaceX's first spaceship for astronauts looks like something from science fiction. But this private space capsule is not a product. It is undergoing some final testing for a launch launch unveiled this summer.

A new SpaceX photo shows what sort of testing the SpaceX Crew Dragon is doing. The space capsule appears here at NASA's Plum Brook station in Sandusky, Ohio, where the propulsion facility in the agency's space tests the craft. The facility, overseen by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has a huge thermal vacuum chamber that is "the only facility in the world capable of testing launchers and large-scale rocket engines." in simulated high altitude conditions ". in an image description.

The crew dragon tests are vital for SpaceX to ensure that the spacecraft can survive extreme temperatures and the void of space, NASA added. [The Evolution of SpaceX’s Rockets in Pictures]

"Once finished, Crew Dragon will be going to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before his first flight," SpaceX representatives wrote in a post-image last week.

A previous SpaceX photo of Crew Dragon showed the spacecraft on another test site – NASA's anechoic chamber at the Kennedy Space Center – during electromagnetic interference testing on May 20.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon, a crewed version of the robotic ship Dragon, is one of two commercial space taxis that NASA will use to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The CST-100 Starliner from Boeing is the other. The two spacecraft are designed to carry up to seven astronauts. Crew Dragon will be launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, while Starliner will be launched on Atlas V rockets built by United Launch Alliance.

The first test flights of Crew Dragon and Starliner are expected to be launched in August from various positions at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida, NASA officials said. (The Boeing Starliner test flight is attached to the space flight for August 27, but no date has yet been set for Crew Dragon.)

If all goes well, Crew Dragon could make its first crew launch in December, with Boeing's first crewed Starliner flight scheduled for a month earlier, in November.

Commercial spacecraft will be the first to launch American astronauts from the US since NASA's fleet retired in July 2011. Since then, NASA has relied on Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to transport American astronauts in space.

Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him @tariqjmalik. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.