First Commercial Crew Test Flight Slated for January
The next generation of American spacecraft and rockets that will launch astronauts to the International Space Station are nearing the final stages of development and evaluation. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will return human spaceflight launches to U.S. soil, providing safe, reliable and cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit on systems that meet the agency’s safety and mission requirements.
SpaceX and the Commercial Crew Program are working together to have the hardware and associated activities ready for its first test flight, Demo-1, in December 2018, but the launch will occur in January to accommodate docking opportunities at the orbiting laboratory. Boeing’s targeted readiness for its Orbital Flight Test is March 2019. Both test flights will be uncrewed missions.
To meet NASA’s requirements, the commercial providers must demonstrate that their systems are ready to begin regular flights to the space station. 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 following target dates reflect the current schedule as of Dec. 10.
Test Flight Planning Dates:
- SpaceX Demo-1 (uncrewed): Jan. 17, 2019
- SpaceX In-Flight Abort Test: Between Demo-1 and Demo-2
- SpaceX Demo-2 (crewed): June 2019
- Boeing Orbital Flight Test (uncrewed): March 2019
- Boeing Pad Abort Test: Between OFT and CFT
- Boeing Crew Flight Test (crewed): August 2019
Boeing, SpaceX and the Commercial Crew Program are actively working to be ready for the operational missions; however, as with all human spaceflight development, learning from each test and adjusting as necessary to reduce risk to the crew may override planning dates.
Anticipated Readiness Dates for Operational Missions:
- First operational mission: August 2019
- Second operational mission: December 2019
For more information, read the in-depth feature.
Follow NASA’s Commercial Crew Program blog for the latest updates on all things Commercial Crew.
