CCiCap – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX has ‘aggressive’ schedule leading up to crew flights

May 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

Staying true to a corporate philosophy that favors high-visibility flight tests, SpaceX plans to continue wringing out major parts of the company’s human-rated Dragon spaceship in a sequence of dramatic flights leading up to the capsule’s first crewed mission scheduled for 2017.

Photos: SpaceX’s passenger spaceship flies on first test run

May 7, 2015 Stephen Clark

It didn’t go into space, but SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule fired off a launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Wednesday for a 99-second test flight to demonstrate a crucial safety mechanism that would save astronauts from a catastrophic rocket failure. View photos of the human-rated spacecraft’s first flight.

Don’t blink: SpaceX crew escape demo will go by in a flash

May 5, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned test model of the company’s Dragon crew capsule Wednesday on a whirlwind 107-second flight through the skies over Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX, Sierra Nevada get more time to finish flight tests

April 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA has extended development agreements with SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. past a March 31 deadline, giving the companies more time to complete delayed tests on commercial spacecraft intended to one day ferry astronauts into space.