WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The announcement was made during the NASA Fiscal Year 2017 Budget meeting, as Bolden testified at a hearing on the budget proposal.
Dragon is a spacecraft developed by SpaceX, a US private space transportation company. Dragon is launched into space by the SpaceX Falcon 9 two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle.
Initially, the launch of the Dragon was scheduled for August 2015, but shortly before that a Falcon 9 rocket crashed during an attempt to send Dragon into orbit. Following the incident, Flacon 9 launches were resumed, but the Dragon mission has been repeatedly postponed.
Last week, after four cancellations, a Falcon 9 rocket failed to perform a successful drone ship landing.
Late last year, NASA expanded its partnership with SpaceX by awarding five additional cargo missions to the ISS, adding to the 15 previous assigned missions.
