SpaceX launched its Crew Dragon capsule for the first time early Saturday in a test flight without people aboard, moving the company closer to ferrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
The capsule, about 400 pounds of cargo and a mannequin passenger was launched atop on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 1:49 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The Crew Dragon deployed from the rocket's second stage about 11 minutes after liftoff, sending it on a trajectory to the space station, where it is scheduled to dock early Sunday morning. The Falcon 9 rocket landed on a floating sea platform in the Atlantic Ocean about 10 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said at a news conference that he was "a little emotionally exhausted" because the launch was "super stressful."
"But it worked, so far," he said. "We have to dock with station, we have to come back, but so far it's worked. We've passed some of the riskiest items."
Saturday's launch was the first test flight for NASA's commercial crew program, a public-private partnership involving SpaceX and Boeing Co., which have contracts worth a combined $6.8 billion to build separate craft to take astronauts to the space station. Since the space shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA has relied on Russia to carry its astronauts to the station.
The new commercial partnerships represent a major shift in how NASA does business.
SpaceX and NASA employees joined forces night to monitor the launch, which allowed the two groups to work together before the next test mission, which will have two NASA astronauts aboard. That launch is set for no earlier than July.
"From our standpoint, this is what you want to see," said Doug Hurley, one of the two NASA astronauts who will be on that test flight. "You want to see the team hitting its stride as we get ready to put people on these things."
Boeing's first flight test of its CST-100 Starliner capsule without crew aboard is set for April, with a test with astronauts expected no earlier than August.
Already, NASA relies on SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Corp. to ferry supplies to the space station in capsules without crews. SpaceX has launched 16 resupply missions so far with its Dragon cargo capsule.
The Dragon cargo capsule's design has a few significant differences from its crew compatriot. For one, the crew capsule will dock autonomously at the space station, while the cargo capsule is grabbed by a robotic arm. Musk said Saturday that the Crew Dragon's nose cone opened as expected, which will allow the capsule to dock.
Before SpaceX flies humans, it will have to comb through the data with NASA from Friday's flight to make sure all of the capsule's systems performed as expected.
For decades, NASA owned the vehicles that carried its astronauts to space, and contractors built them with significant input from the space agency. In the commercial crew program, NASA released a broad set of requirements for astronaut safety, but companies were free to design their craft to meet those standards. NASA then worked closely with both SpaceX and Boeing to offer expertise and resources during the development.
The Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to leave the space station and splash down next Friday in the Atlantic Ocean, where a recovery ship will pick it up.
Musk said Saturday that the capsule's hypersonic re-entry to Earth is "probably my biggest concern." Crew Dragon has escape thruster pods integrated into the capsule's side, making it less smooth than its cargo counterpart, he said.
