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One. They're planning on testing manned missions with their Dragon 2 and Falcon Heavy in mid-2017.
by lfuller 10y ago
One. They're planning on testing manned missions with their Dragon 2 and Falcon Heavy in mid-2017.
- ck2 10y agoWow are they really ready for human life onboard in a year? Unmanned failure doesn't bring much press. Kill a few people and it will set back the whole program years.
- mikeash 10y agoThey think they will be ready. Note that the manned Dragon has an abort capability. If the launcher blows up that doesn't necessarily spell doom for the astronauts.
- mikeyouse 10y agoSince they don't have to deal with the insulation issues like the shuttle did, the most dangerous phase of flight for a crew is during launch. Last Spring, SpaceX demo'ed their launch abort system which in theory should be able to protect the astronauts against any launch problems; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8