KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- American astronauts may finally blast off on new rockets from Florida's Space Coast in 2019.
- NASA unveiled target dates for crew capsule test flights
- If successful, crews would fly in 2019
- First astronauts to be named Friday
- RELATED: Rocket Launch Schedule
On Tuesday, NASA unveiled new target test flight dates for Boeing and SpaceX for the Commercial Crew Program.
Both companies must successfully complete test flights for their crew capsules before NASA will actually allow the companies to fly the capsules with astronauts inside.
The dates are as follows:
- Boeing Orbital Flight Test (Uncrewed): Late 2018/early 2019
- Boeing Crew Flight Test (Crewed): Mid-2019
- SpaceX Demo-1 (Uncrewed): November 2018
- SpaceX Demo-2 (Crewed): April 2019
If the uncrewed flights are successful, the crewed test flights will each have two astronauts on the flight.
The schedule was released one day before NASA names the first astronauts to be assigned to those Boeing and SpaceX flights. That announcement will take place in Houston.