Artistic vision of the spacecraft Dragon from SpaceX approaching the ISS
On October 4, NASA announced that the first unmanned test flight for the Dragon SpaceX capsule would begin no earlier than January 2019 due to the docking schedule of the International Space Station. The company and the space agency are still planning to prepare all systems for launch in December. This date was announced back in August, a few days after the SpaceX vice-president Hans Königsmann stated that problems with documents can move the first test flight to the next year.
The hardware will be ready, but delays will begin due to the expectation of certification of documents. NASA promises to update the schedule of test dates as often as possible. Opponent SpaceX company Boeing is now working on the preparation of a test flight in March 2019. Each of these tests should launch a capsule, dock with the ISS, and return to Earth to confirm its readiness to transport human crews. Current data suggests that the SpaceX flight test flight is scheduled for June 2019, and Boeing is scheduled for August. NASA has already announced the names of crew members who will be aboard each ship (two for SpaceX and three for Boeing)
