It’s been too long, as the Commercial Crew plan of NASA was closed after its initial launch. But, SpaceX said that it is going to plan test flight launch of their crewed Dragon in the next month. It has come after some setbacks when both Boeing and SpaceX trudged during the test and review procedure which will be the manned spaceflight returning to the United States. The company has announced that it has completed the static fire testing of its Falcon9 rocket in the last week which will propel this Dragon II into the orbit.
During the fire testing, the rocket remained tethered to launch tower which help it to remain at a fixed position until the engine starts its ignition. In the next month, this rocket is going to be launched and will travel towards the moon. For the ISS, DragonII capsule is the upgraded version of Dragon which used to fly uncrewed for sending cargo to the International Space Station since past few years. But, the testing & certification process of NASA is much more strict towards this mission than the previous cargo contract. Before this, Space has seen many such launch failures, however the crewed flights will come up with some additional safety features such as abort system. Space agency NASA was previously uncertain about allowing the astronauts to aboard spacecraft while fueling, which was the preferred process of SpaceX.
But, the agency was relaxed after the additional reviews of design. The test held in February is going to cover every part of this typical mission towards ISS for sending crew back & forth. This mission is called Spx-DM1, which will be launched from the 39-A launch pad of Kennedy Space Station. The Falcon9 booster is going to release 2nd stage before moving down towards the Earth. It is still undisclosed whether SpaceX is going to land the booster on land.
