SpaceX successfully launches astronaut capsule without crew in landmark test mission

SpaceX launched its Crew Dragon capsule for the first time late Friday in a test flight without humans aboard, a milestone that moves the Elon Musk-led company closer to ferrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The capsule, some 400 pounds of cargo and a mannequin passenger named Ripley, lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:49 p.m. Pacific time from the same Florida pad where Apollo and space shuttle programs once began their missions. The Crew Dragon deployed from the rocket's second-stage about 11 minutes after lift-off, sending it on a trajectory to the space station where it is scheduled to dock early Sunday morning. The Falcon 9 rocket landed on a floating sea platform in the Atlantic Ocean about 10 minutes after liftoff. Friday's launch was the first test flight for NASA's commercial crew program, a public-private partnership involving Hawthorne-based SpaceX and Boeing Co., which have contracts worth a combined total of $6.8 billion to build separate craft to transport astronauts to the space station.