Four NASA astronauts have been preparing for Boeing and SpaceX crewed test flights since 2015 and have been training on both Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
SpaceX designated the Plum Brook Station testing as the final milestone before shipping the Crew Dragon spacecraft to Florida for final testing and integration with its Falcon 9 rocket.
The first SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft completed thermal vacuum and acoustics tests at NASA Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station.
A 2018-06-20 SpaceX Instagram post indicated that Crew Dragon will travel to Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of its first flight.
SpaceX plans to ship the Crew Dragon spacecraft from Plum Brook Station to Cape Canaveral for final launch processing after testing.
When SpaceX transitions to the CRS-2 cargo delivery contract, the company will use the Dragon 2 vehicle, also known as Crew Dragon, modified for cargo by changing out seats and consoles.
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon are close to having new test flight dates set.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is currently at NASA's Plum Brook Station in Ohio for thermal vacuum tests.
After thermal vacuum tests, the Crew Dragon vehicle will be transported to Cape Canaveral for final launch processing.
The 2018-04-05 contract modification provides NASA with additional schedule margin for starting regular ISS crew rotation flights on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner or SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.