SpaceX conducted a short 100-second test flight of its new DragonCrew capsule in a test of its escape systems on 6 May 2015. The short unmanned flight used eight high-thrust SuperDraco rocket thrusters, mounted in four pairs on the capsule, to lift it to an altitude just shy of 3,900 feet from its launch pad in Cape Canaveral. After jettisoning its cargo trunk, the Crew Dragon capsule then made a successful parachute descent into the Atlantic Ocean, just off the Florida coast.
The successful flight was a test of the abort system to allow the astronauts to launch their capsule away from an exploding rocket in flight or on the launch pad.
