SpaceX to Test Launch Abort System
By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent - BBC News
SpaceX is set to conduct a test of the launch abort system it will use on its Dragon astronaut capsule.
A test vehicle will be fired from the ground at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to show how a crewship would be flung clear of a rocket in an emergency.
Thrusters integrated into the capsule should push the vessel into the air, before parachutes then bring it softly down into the Atlantic about 2km away.
SpaceX expects to start launching astronauts in 2017.