CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX chalked up another big test flight Wednesday, firing a capsule into the air to test its new, super-streamlined launch escape system for astronauts.

No humans were on board for this first-of-its-kind flight that lasted barely 90 seconds. A dummy was the only passenger.

The Dragon capsule shot off a test stand, not a rocket, and flew up and then out over the Atlantic. Red and white parachutes popped open and lowered the capsule into the ocean, just offshore.

“This flight test unlike any seen in Florida since the days of Apollo,” NASA spokesman Mike Curie, the TV commentator for the test, said after the capsule plopped into the ocean. Recovery boats and a barge moved in to retrieve the craft.

The California-based company led by billionaire Elon Musk aims to launch U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station as early as 2017. Boeing is designing its own crew capsule. NASA wants to make sure the commercial crew flights will be safe in an emergency, and is insisting on reliable escape systems.


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