SpaceX is aiming to conduct crewed missions to low-Earth orbit as early as 2015, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based aerospace firm has so far only launched its unmanned Dragon capsule into space to place satellites in orbit and last October, in a first for a private company, to resupply the International Space Station in partnership with NASA.

This week, SpaceX project manager and former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman said manned flights conducted by the company could come more quickly than many industry watchers anticipated. Reisman, speaking at a NASA press event at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, said SpaceX was hoping to send a capsule carrying its own hand-picked astronautsnot the U.S. space agency'son a three-day demonstration flight in low-Earth orbit, the Sentinel reported.

Reisman quipped that SpaceX is "not selling tickets" for the proposed Dragon test flight, so "don't call our toll-free number."

Separately this week, Apollo astronaut and spaceflight emissary Buzz Aldrin helped Space Expedition Corporation (SXE) and the body spray maker AXE launch a contest to win a seat on a sub-orbital flight to take place in 2014. But that will be a space tourism venture and not a demonstration for NASA like SpaceX's proposed mission.

Meanwhile, Boeing, one half of SpaceX competitor the United Launch Alliance (ULA), is planning to conduct its own manned demo flight for NASA in 2016, according to the newspaper. Robert Stevens, the outgoing CEO at Boeing's ULA partner Lockheed Martin, made news late last year when he criticized SpaceX as inexperienced in conducting space missions and misguided in trying to operate on the cheap relative to the ULA.

SpaceX co-founder and CEO Elon Musk fired back, saying his company was able to underbid the ULA for contracts like its recently won deal to conduct trial missions for the U.S. Air Force because it used more advanced technology than the two aerospace giants' joint venture.

That said, the Sentinel noted that SpaceX still has much to prove to NASA before the space agency signs off on manned missions conducted by the commercial venture, the first of which would likely be trips to the ISS. While last October's cargo mission to the space station was successfulSpaceX also successfully docked its Dragon capsule with the ISS in a May trial missionone of the Merlin engines on the company's Falcon 9 rocket shut down during the October flight, raising concerns about SpaceX's ability to safely transport humans into orbit.

SpaceX, however, noted that the engine shutdown proved its launch vehicle's safety measures worked and that a Falcon 9 mission could succeed even with such a significant glitch.

At any rate, NASA is backing both the proposed SpaceX and Boeing demonstration flights, according to the Sentinel. "We want to know when you [commercial companies] are ready to fly your crew at your risk," the paper quoted NASA commercial crew program director Ed Mango as saying.

Reisman said SpaceX was in the early stages of deciding how to pick a crew for its proposed 2015 demo flight. Though the ex-NASA astronaut wasn't necessarily planning to submit his own name as a candidate, the Sentinel quoted him as saying that with regards to such a mission, "What's important to me is that I can look myself in the mirror [and say] that the risk is acceptable for me to fly,"

For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.

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