America’s Newest Crew Capsule Rockets Toward Space Station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a demo Crew Dragon spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 2, 2019. John Raoux/AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida—America’s newest capsule for astronauts rocketed Saturday, March 2, toward the International Space Station (ISS) on a high-stakes test flight by SpaceX.

The only passenger was a life-size test dummy, named Ripley after the lead character in the “Alien” movies. SpaceX needs to nail the debut of its crew Dragon capsule before putting people on board later this year.