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Blast Off, Crew Dragon!

ARRIVAL Crew Dragon (left) attaches itself to the International Space Station. NASA

On March 2, a Crew Dragon spacecraft launched from Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. It’s the first American spacecraft built to carry a crew to the International Space Station since 2011. “What today really represents is a new era in spaceflight,” Jim Bridenstine said after the launch. He is the administrator of NASA.

Crew Dragon was built by SpaceX. That is a company run by businessman Elon Musk. On this test run, there were no people on board. SpaceX sent up a test dummy instead. The dummy’s name is Ripley. It has sensors that measure how people onboard might experience acceleration acceleration JOHN ISAAC/EYEEM—GETTY IMAGES the act of moving faster (noun) Waterslide engineers test acceleration to ensure safety of riders. .

If Crew Dragon’s six-day mission goes well, two real astronauts might be flying on the ship this summer.