Christian Davenport, The Washington Post Published 12:28 pm PDT, Thursday, April 25, 2019 It seemed like things were going so well. SpaceX had pulled off an impressive launch of its Dragon spacecraft, which then docked with the International Space Station autonomously, like a car parallel parking on its own. When it returned with a splash down in the Atlantic Ocean last month, NASA heralded the mission as a success, one that put the space agency a step closer to having its astronauts fly again from United States soil after an eight-year hiatus. But since then, NASA’s “commercial crew” program, a bold bet by the agency to outsource human space flight to a pair of publicly traded corporations, has suffered a series of setbacks that have caused significant delays. On Saturday, something went dramatically wrong with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule when it failed during an engine test, sending a massive cloud of smoke over Cape Canaveral, Florida. Boeing – the other company under contract to fly crews to the space station – also recently announced it would delay its first test launch by several months, as it continues to struggle with the development of its spacecraft. Now many believe both companies – which… Read full this story
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