SpaceX’s astronaut launch is set for May with two astronauts on the Crew Dragon to the International Space Station (ISS) on its first operational mission ferrying humans to and from the space station. If the test launch is proven successful and safety, the commercial manned space mission will gain momentum from the second half of this year.

NASA announced on Tuesday the Crew Dragon with two astronauts will be launched on SpaceX`s reusable rocket Falcon 9 at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on May 20. The test flight will be performed by Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley.

This is the first manned space mission to and from the ISS on a civilian-developed spacecraft. The test flight called `Demo-2` is Crew Dragon`s second and final test launch, which also represents the last procedure required by NASA to approve the Crew Dragon`s commercial space flight in the future.

The Crew Dragon, 4m wide and 8.1m high, can carry up to seven people, or up to four NASA astronauts considering the volume of mission equipment. A free flight can last up to 10 days, and can stay docked to the ISS for up to 210 days.

NASA has so far assigned four astronauts (Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover Jr., Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi) to the first operational crewed flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the ISS. NASA signed a $2.6 trillion contract with SpaceX for six space flight missions.

Early last year, Axiom Space, a Texas-based space tour startup, signed a contract with SpaceX to fly three customers and its own professionally trained commander on the Crew Dragon capsule sometime in the second half of 2021. It will be the first fully private crew to ever visit the ISS.

Another U.S. company Space Adventure is set to send four tourists to the ISS on the Crew Dragon late next year or in early 2022.

Boeing, a potential SpaceX`s rival, is developing CTS-100 Starliner, a seven-seater manned space shuttle supported by NASA. Starliner is designed to fly for up to 60 days but has not yet reached the level of ferrying astronauts safely.

By Song Kyung-eun and Minu Kim

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