Save the date: On January 7th, the first SpaceX demonstration flight for its next crew flight, the first to take off from American soil in eight years, will be January 7th.
In a notice sent to the media on Wednesday, NASA confirmed that SpaceX was aiming on January 7, 2019 to test its Falcon 9 rocket and its Crew Dragon spacecraft that will take astronauts into space next summer if 39, current schedule is respected. The launch will take place at the 39A Kennedy Space Center, historic site of the first lunar satellite.
The unsupported test flight will provide "performance data for the Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon Crew spacecraft and ground systems, as well as on-orbit operations, mooring and the Landing, "said NASA. The flight will also provide data to NASA certifying that the SpaceX crew transportation system will transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The company then plans a crewed flight in June 2019. This is the first time that astronauts have been heading to space since the United States since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
Boeing, NASA's other commercial crew program company, is scheduled to fly in March, followed by a crew flight in August 2019.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will fly SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, while astronauts Eric Boe, Nicole Aunapu Mann and Chris Ferguson will fly the Boeing Starliner CST-100, propelled by Atlas V rocket Launched by United Launch Alliance. The launch of Boeing will use the Cape Canaveral Air Base Launch Complex.
NASA is currently reviewing the security of SpaceX and Boeing to evaluate workplace culture in both companies before crewed flights take place, according to the Washington Post. The probe was prompted by a video of SpaceX founder Elon Musk smoking marijuana and drinking whiskey with Joe Rogan Experience, an online podcast.
If NASA gives the green light and the test and crew flights take off without problem, it will then determine the spacecraft that will take the crew to the first long-duration mission bound for the space station, scheduled for August. A second operational mission will take place in December 2019.
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