Skip to Content
Smart cities

SpaceX has successfully launched its Crew Dragon capsule for the first time

March 2, 2019

It lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, and is now on its way to the International Space Station.

The news: Dark and early Saturday morning at 2:49 a.m. EST, the Falcon 9 rocket took off with the test module perched on top. The Crew Dragon successfully entered orbit and the Falcon 9 first stage booster was caught on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You. Onboard the Crew Dragon was a sensor-equipped dummy (or “smartie,” as SpaceX calls it) named Ripley (after the Alien movies, of course), 181 kilograms (400 pounds) of cargo, and a bonus stuffed Earth Celestial Buddy passenger to show off when the module reached microgravity. You can watch a video of the launch here.

What’s next: Some of the bigger tests are still to come. Tomorrow at 6 a.m. EST, the capsule will reach the International Space Station and, for the first time, autonomously dock with it. The craft will return home just a few days later on March 8, when it’ll splash down off the coast of Florida. The data obtained from this mission will help determine whether the crew module is ready to launch with people on board this July and will inform final changes to the system.

Why it matters: Since the end of the shuttle program in 2011, NASA has been unable to launch astronauts from US soil, leaving it dependent on Russian rockets. If successful, SpaceX and Boeing’s crewed rockets will address that issue, but delays in the test launches could create a gap in the ability to send US astronauts to the space station. Even though things have gone smoothly on this demo flight so far, further delays of the companies’ testing processes beyond July are pretty likely. NASA appears to be preparing for that possibility. A recent procurement notice says NASA plans to buy two additional seats on Russian rockets for late 2019 and early 2020. 

Want to keep up with space tech news? Sign up for our space newsletter, The Airlock, here.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.