MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The first manned flight of Dragon 2 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) has been put off due to an accident that occurred during the tests, a source in the aerospace industry told Sputnik.

"The SuperDraco engines of the emergency response systems of the Dragon 2 spacecraft were being tested. For this purpose, the return mechanism of the unmanned spacecraft Dragon 2, which made a test flight to the ISS in March, was used. As a result of an accident, an explosion occurred that led to the destruction of the return mechanism … It is necessary to deal with the causes of the accident that took place during the tests. All this would take a long time. Now, the launch of the Dragon 2 spacecraft in July is out of the question. [It can take place] not earlier than the end of the year", the source said.

US aerospace manufacturer SpaceX said earlier in the day that an "anomaly" had occurred during the static fire tests of the abort engines of its crewed Dragon spacecraft, also known as Dragon 2. The tests were carried out on Saturday at SpaceX's test stand in Cape Canaveral, located in the southeastern US state of Florida.

READ MORE: SpaceX Says 'Anomaly' Happened During Fire Tests of Crew Dragon's Abort Engines

The statement comes after a source in the Russian aerospace industry told Sputnik in March that US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) planned to hold its SpaceX Demo-2 mission, the first manned test flight of Dragon 2 spacecraft, on July 25, marking the first crewed US spacecraft launch to the ISS in eight years.

NASA held the successful test flight of the unmanned Dragon mission to the ISS, known as Demo-1, in March.