James Dean

FLORIDA TODAY

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program on Friday announced it has ordered a second mission from SpaceX to fly astronauts to the International Space Station in Dragon capsules.

SpaceX and Boeing now each have been awarded the two missions guaranteed under NASA contracts after their rockets and capsules are certified as safe to fly.

Before earning that certification, current schedules showed SpaceX planning a test flight with a crew as soon as August 2017, with Boeing following in February 2018.

"We appreciate the trust NASA has placed in SpaceX with the order of another crew mission and look forward to flying astronauts from American soil next year," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer.

Which company will fly the first operational mission and when remains to be determined.

More: Schedule of upcoming rocket launches

Boeing shows off Starliner factory at KSC

Phil McAlister, head of commercial spaceflight at NASA headquarters, last week told the NASA Advisory Council that the companies' schedules are “optimistic but achievable.”

McAlister also said that NASA continues to assess SpaceX's new method for fueling upgraded Falcon 9 rockets just a half-hour before launch. That timeline would put astronauts on top of the rocket while fuel is loaded, a potentially hazardous operation.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets that Boeing capsules will launch atop, in contrast, will be fueled before crews strap into Starliner capsules.

“We are getting more comfortable with it, but we are not yet ready to say we’re good,” McAlister said of SpaceX's procedure. “We’re still working through that.”

SpaceX test advances reusability

A test SpaceX completed Thursday appears to bode well for its plans to reuse rockets.

On a test stand in Texas, the company fired the nine main engines on a Falcon 9 rocket booster that launched a Japanese communications satellite from Cape Canaveral on May 6, then landed on the deck of a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The engines fired for about two minutes and 30 seconds — as long as the first stage of a Falcon 9 would fire during an actual launch. Watch the test here.

That’s significant because the booster was the first that SpaceX landed after a launch of a satellite to a high orbit more than 22,000 miles up. Those missions fly faster and subject the rocket stage to more intense heating when it returns to Earth.

CEO Elon Musk in May described that stage as having suffered “max damage.” He said the booster would be tested on the ground as a model for other recovered boosters.

SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster suffered 'max' damage on landing

The full-duration firing suggests SpaceX is recovering rockets in good enough condition to be flown again, even after launches to high orbits.

SpaceX, however, did not say how much refurbishment the rocket needed between the landing and the recent test-firing.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is preparing to launch its second satellite this year for Japanese satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT, tentatively planned in mid-August.

SpaceX has landed five boosters since December, two on land and three at sea.

Musk hopes to re-launch a rocket as soon as this fall, using the one that landed on a ship in April during a launch of International Space Station supplies.

Dream Chaser flight test nears

Sierra Nevada Corp. will soon ship its Dream Chaser mini-shuttle to California for a second round of flight tests.

Once a contender to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, the Dream Chaser has won a contract to fly at least six cargo resupply mission to the station starting as soon as 2019. The space plane will launch from Cape Canaveral on Atlas V rockets and land on Kennedy Space Center’s runway.

By late this year or early next year, SNC plans to drop a Dream Chaser from a helicopter, testing its performance during an approach and landing at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, similar to tests of the space shuttle prototype Enterprise in the 70s.

Flight software designed for use on orbital missions also will be tested.

A first drop test in late 2013 was considered a success despite a landing gear problem that caused the test vehicle to skid off the runway.

“Dream Chaser continues to make strong progress toward orbital flight,” said Mark Sirangelo, head of Colorado-based SNC Space Systems.

Dream Chaser mini-shuttle coming to Kennedy Space Center

Bennu or bust

All the flight hardware has arrived for a Sept. 8 launch of a NASA probe that will visit an asteroid and return a sample.

United Launch Alliance’s Mariner ship delivered the Atlas V booster for the OSIRIS-REx mission on Friday, one day after an Atlas V launched a spy satellite from Cape Canaveral.

The 13-foot diameter nose cone that will shelter the spacecraft during its climb through the atmosphere arrived a day earlier, and the rocket’s Centaur upper stage arrived the previous week.

A single solid rocket booster will fill out the Atlas V rocket flying in a configuration labeled "411." The spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center in May.

OSIRIS-REx is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security – Regolith Explorer. The $800 million mission aims to send a probe to the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and bring back a sample of up 2,000 grams by 2023.

Atlas V, spy satellite blast off from Cape Canaveral

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.