SpaceX conducts engine test fire for communications satellite launch (members only)

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken give a video tour of their new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as they close in on a docking with the International Space Station on May 31, 2020.

SpaceX is on schedule to fly two NASA astronauts on a test flight to the International Space Station by the end of 2017, but there is a lot of work to do to ensure the company’s new Crew Dragon spaceship is up to the task and ready in time, a SpaceX manager said Tuesday.

Confronted with pesky problems in the Falcon 9 rocket’s helium pressurization system, SpaceX has shuffled the order of the next two launches, choosing to go ahead with the liftoff of a Dragon supply ship on a cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station around April 10.