SpaceX’s 1st Dragon capsule for astronauts arrives at launch site for historic mission

The Dragon spacecraft that will fly SpaceX’s first-ever mission with astronauts on board has reached its Florida launch site ahead of a historic lift-off next week.

The Crew Dragon capsule arrived at Launch Complex 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday night (May 15), making the short trek from SpaceX’s processing facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The arrival marked another big milestone for SpaceX in the leadup to the planned launch of the Demo-2 mission on May 27.

Demo-2 will carry NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The May 27 lift-off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will be the first orbital human spaceflight to launch from U.S. soil since NASA’s space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. Since then, NASA has relied solely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to perform this taxi service.