On Monday, Musk confirmed a report that claimed NASA estimates the firm will be ready for people-carrying space adventures as early as April of next year. While a good sign for the company’s Mars mission, a successful human test flight would also enable a new method of sending people to the International Space Station.
The goal is vital for NASA’s future space station experiments. The agency ended its shuttle program in 2011 and now depends on third-party support to reach the station. NASA currently has a contract to use the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that expires on November 2019, and the agency plans to use Boeing or SpaceX to fill the gap.
Last week, the agency announced it expects SpaceX to complete an uncrewed test flight in November 2018 followed by a crewed flight in April 2019. Musk confirmed the company will have the Crew Dragon capsule hardware ready to go by this date.