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Since the end of the space shuttle
program in 2011, the U.S. has used
Russian Soyuz spacecraft every time
it wants to, well, shuttle humans to and
from space. While NASA is busy work-
ing on its own solution, the agency has
increasingly turned to private companies,
such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to cover its
off-planet transportation needs.
Although SpaceX has successfully flown
cargo flights for NASA since 2012 via the
reusable Dragon spacecraft, the company
has yet to launch humans in its so-called
Crew Dragon capsule. Originally promisedto launch in 2017, the program has seen
multiple delays. It is, after all, rocket sci-
ence, and the path has not been easy.
But this year seemed different. NASA’s
pre-purchased Soyuz flights run out by
the end of 2019, and SpaceX — along with
Boeing — had scheduled all its final tests
to achieve certification in time to pick up
where Soyuz left off. On March 2, the Crew
Dragon capsule launched on a dry run
without crew toward the ISS. It docked,
unloaded supplies and splashed back down
in the Atlantic Ocean on March 8. The
flight, known as Demo-1, went flawlessly.The Bumpy Road
to Launching a Dragon
BY KOREY HAYNESThe SpaceX Crew Dragon
docks at the International
Space Station in this
artist’s illustration. NASA,
Boeing and SpaceX are
partnering to build the
spacecraft (opposite).