NASA has scheduled the first piloted flight launched by the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission in July 2011. The SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2 returns a human space flight capability to American soil for the first time in nine years ending the nation’s reliance on Russia to transport crews to the International Space Station.
On Dec. 20, 2019 at 6:36 a.m. EST, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The unpiloted Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station will be the first for the company’s spacecraft as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program now is underway with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon for a mission to the International Space station. The Falcon 9’s eight Merlin engines ignited at 2:49 a.m. EST on March 2, 2019.