New POV video from SpaceX takes you for a ride on Crew Dragon's first flight

 By 
Miriam Kramer
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

SpaceX wants to take you for a ride.

Elon Musk's rocket company released new footage on Friday of its Crew Dragon capsule taking flight for the first time during a test earlier in May. The uncrewed test was designed to help engineers gather more information about the effectiveness of the capsule's abort system -- a key component used to quickly propel astronauts away from a failing rocket should something bad happen during flight.

The test appears to have gone well.

“It was a great, great outcome," Musk said after the test. "Had there been people on board, they would have been in great shape.”

The two-minute video shows the Dragon capsule blasting off from its Florida launchpad, separating from its trunk and reaching a maximum velocity of 345 mph, according to SpaceX. The Crew Dragon flew about 5,000 feet into the air before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean under its parachutes.

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