‘First manned SpaceX mission in June, Boeing mission in August’

Washington: The first human spaceflight aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to take place in June 2019, while a flight on a Boeing spacecraft is set to follow in August 2019, NASA said.

It is the first crewed mission by the US since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. NASA astronauts currently use Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and its contract is set to expire in November 2019. While both SpaceX and Boeing launches have already been postponed several times, NASA on Thursday said that it would now be providing monthly updates on deadlines.

“This new process for reporting our schedule is better; nevertheless, launch dates will still have some uncertainty, and we anticipate they may change as we get closer to launch,” Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight development at NASA headquarters, said in a blog post. (IANS)