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November 24 (UPI) – NASA has set January 7 as a date for the shipment of an unused SpaceX capsule on its maiden voyage to the International Space Station.
The commercial flight of Crew Dragon will be known as Demo-1 or DM-1, NASA announced in a press release issued earlier this week.
Crew Dragon will take off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the launch pad of Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, where the Apollo 11 mission took off for the moon in 1969. SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, now rents the ramp launch.
In an updated calendar, NASA is planning the first operational mission with a commercial team to be held in June and a second in December. The Dragon crew can accommodate three passengers.
Boeing, a competitor of SpaceX, plans an unarmed orbital flight test next March and an inhabited flight in August.
Both companies must perform abandonment tests before their first crew tests.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the first two astronauts scheduled to fly the new spacecraft, were equipped with SpaceX space suits and tested a model earlier this month.
Since the withdrawal of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011, the only astronaut rides have been completed aboard the Soyuz (Russia).
In October, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin had to make an emergency landing after an abnormal separation of the propeller. An inhabited flight is scheduled for December 3.
On November 17, NASA launched approximately 7,400 pounds of cargo for the space station. aboard Northrop Grumman's Cygnus on an Antares 230 rocket from Virgia.
Commercial astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley become familiar with the operations inside @SpaceXCrew Dragon, perfectly adapted! pic.twitter.com/41cqRwhzdp
– NASA Sales Team (@Commercial_Crew) November 2, 2018
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