The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the new Crew Dragon spacecraft ignited its nine first-stage engines briefly on Thursday as it stood atop the historic Launch Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
There are still a number of tests to complete, but with everything going well, after next month’s uncrewed first demonstration flight, we could be looking at SpaceX flying astronauts to the International Space Station this summer, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
If test flight of goes well next month, Space_Station this summer!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2019
Even though SpaceX is targeting a February launch date for the unmanned Crew Dragon flight which will go to the ISS, they have not officially announced a launch date. A Spaceflight Now report citing unnamed SpaceX and NASA managers stated that the mission could fly no earlier than Feb. 23.
People may remember that the demonstration flight of the new Crew Dragon spacecraft was initially scheduled for January, however, the launch was pushed back to February due to schedule issues and the need for adding additional hardware checks.
Today’s static test firing of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Falcon 9 rocket is not expected to occur before 4pm EST (2100 GMT): j5LpfvB260
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) January 24, 2019
Regardless, the test firing of the Falcon 9 is a significant step forward for the space company. SpaceX still has to go through a final review process before the green light is given to proceed. The Falcon 9 rocket is, of course, a critical part of the mission, but the new Crew Dragon – an upgraded version of the Dragon used to deliver supplies to the ISS is especially critical to the mission.
In addition to life support systems to support up to seven astronauts, there are also some major upgrades to the Crew Dragon, like the solar panels built into the spacecraft rather than extended panels, and a launch escape system. It could take several months to review all the data from this first flight, before moving to a second crewed demonstration flight.
