First test flight of NASA's Commercial Crew Program

First test flight of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Today’s Video of the Day from NASA shows the liftoff of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Spacecraft, which launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on March 2, 2019.

This is the first unmanned test flight of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

During a news conference Saturday morning, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said:

“What today really represents is a new era in spaceflight: An era when we are looking forward to being one customer, as an agency and a country, of many customers in a robust commercial marketplace in low Earth orbit, so we can drive down cost and increase access in ways that, historically, has not been possible.” 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 Demonstration Mission 1 for SpaceX.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and commercial partners, Boeing and SpaceX, made significant strides in 2017 to return human spaceflight to the United States. Each company continued to develop and test unique space systems to fly astronauts for the agency to and from the International Space Station.

—

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: NASA