Uncrewed Human-Rated Dragon To Fly January 7

NASA has updated the schedule posted on its Commercial Crew blog to indicate that the first flight of an uncrewed human-rated SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is planned for January 7, 2019.

Spaceflight Insider reports that the update was posted November 21. The launch is scheduled for 11:55 p.m. from Launch Complex 30A and will last about two weeks.

The flight is intended to demonstrate that Crew Dragon is ready for use as a ferry for astronauts to the International Space Station.

According to NASA:

“To meet NASA’s requirements, the commercial providers must demonstrate that their systems are ready to begin regular flights to the space station. Two of those demonstrations are uncrewed flight tests, known as Orbital Flight Test for Boeing, and Demo-1 for SpaceX. After the uncrewed flight tests, both companies will carry out spacecraft abort tests to demonstrate their crew escape capability during an actual on-pad, or ascent emergency. The final test flights for each company will be crew flight tests to the space station prior to being certified by NASA for crew rotation missions.”

The first manned flight of Crew Dragon is currently planned for June 2019 with astronauts Douglas Hurley and Bob Behnken (pictured) on board.

The schedule indicates that the first uncrewed flight of Boeing's commercial crew spacecraft will take place in March, 2019, but no specific date is listed, with Boeing's first manned flight planned for August of next year.

(Images provided by NASA)

FMI: Source report, blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew