SpaceX Capsule Splashes Down Off Florida After Intentional Rocket Failure Test

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon astronaut capsule, lifts off on an in-flight abort test, a key milestone completion before flying humans in 2020 under NASA's commercial crew program, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2020. Joe Skipper/Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Elon Musk’s SpaceX simulated a successful emergency landing on Sunday in a dramatic test of a crucial abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule, laying the foundation for its mission to fly NASA astronauts for the first time.

A Crew Dragon astronaut capsule launched at 10:30 a.m. local time and softly splashed down about 19 miles (32 km) off the coast of Cape Canaveral in Florida roughly eight minutes later, after ejecting itself from a rocket that cut off its engines 12 miles (19 km) above the ocean to mimic a launch failure.