[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]SpaceX successfully sent an unmanned Crew Dragon capsule into space Saturday morning as part of testing for future commercial flights carrying human passengers.
The 16-foot-tall Crew Dragon capsule is outfitted for a seven-person crew, but Saturday’s mission carried only a test dummy nicknamed “Ripley” after character from the science fiction movie “Alien.” SpaceX said the dummy is wearing a spacesuit embedded with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to gather data on the conditions to be experienced by human passengers.
The capsule, also loaded with 450 pounds of cargo for the International Space Station, was carried by a Falcon 9 rocket that launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 2:49 a.m. ET. The capsule successfully separated from the rocket about 11 minutes after launch. SpaceX then successfully landed the rocket on a drone ship in the Atlantic. It was the 35th time the company has launched and landed a rocket.
A crew at the ISS will receive, inspect, and run some tests on the capsule when it arrives early Sunday morning.
SpaceX and Boeing were both awarded contracts to carry astronauts for NASA, ending a reliance on Russian rockets for rides at $80 million a head. SpaceX hopes to launch humans into space later this year, which would mark the first such instance since 2011.
Watch the webcast of the mission below.[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZL0tbOZYhE” video_title=”1″][/vc_column][/vc_row]