SpaceX Ready to Launch First Dragon Crew Capsule Early Tomorrow

The first flight of the redesigned Dragon 2 crew capsule will happen after midnight tonight. (Credit: SpaceX) SpaceX’s Dragon Crew Capsule is set to launch from Cape Canaveral in a pivotal test flight for human-crewed missions that could happen as soon as this summer. The only passengers for this mission are a mannequin and some cargo for the International Space Station. It will dock on Sunday, stay for five days, and then depart before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean on March 8. This flight is a milestone for NASA and for SpaceX. NASA has been without a domestic carrier for their astronauts since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. The space agency has relied on Russian Soyuz capsules for access to ISS ever since. SpaceX and Boeing are both in the final stages of testing the multi-billion dollar capsules NASA contracted them to build under its ...