The first crewed flights to take off from the Space Coast in almost a decade could take place a little later than planned.
NASA released Thursday updated schedules of test flights and crewed flights of Boeing and SpaceX, indicating that dates had slipped a few months later than expected.
The two companies were scheduled to conduct a test flight at the end of this year of spacecraft that will ultimately transport astronauts to the International Space Station.
Instead, SpaceX is now planning to conduct its first test flight in January 2019 to "enable berthing opportunities" at the space station, NASA said. Boeing is targeting March 2019.
For missions, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will fly SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, powered by a Falcon 9 rocket, from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39A, scheduled for June 2019 They will be the first American astronaut to take off American soil in eight years since the end of the shuttle program in 2011.
For Boeing, astronauts Eric Boe, Nicole Aunapu Mann and Chris Ferguson will pilot a Starliner CST-100 spacecraft at a launch in August 2019. They will take off from Launch Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base on a rocket United Launch Alliance Atlas V.
NASA will then determine which spacecraft will take a crew on the first long-term mission to the space station scheduled for August. A second operational mission will take place in December 2019.
From here, NASA will probably make monthly updates on the progress of the program.
"This new reporting process of our calendar is better; however, launch dates will remain uncertain and we anticipate that they may change as the launch approaches, "said Phil McAlister, Director of Commercial Space Flight Development at NASA Headquarters, in a statement press.
"These are new spacecraft, and the engineering teams have a lot of work to do before the systems are ready to fly."
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