The BBC is reporting that SpaceX has had an anomaly during tests of its manned Dragon capsule design. Details are few:
SpaceX has confirmed that its Crew Dragon capsule suffered an "anomaly" during routine engine tests in Florida.
A US Air Force spokesperson told local press the incident, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, had been contained and no-one had been injured.
The BBC article reports that pictures are circulating on social media showing smoke coming from the capsule. (Florida Today has one, plus a little more detail on the event.)
SpaceX has designed the capsule to use thrusters for landing although time constraints on the development program mean they will be using parachutes for now. (The recent mission by an unmanned Crew Dragon to the I.S.S. landed with with parachutes.)
It appears the anomaly was related to testing the thrusters, which are also intended to be used for emergency separation if there is an anomaly during launch.
This is not the only recent setback for SpaceX. The very successful launch of Arabsat using a Falcon Heavy was marred by an incident following an otherwise perfect mission. All three first stage boosters successfully returned to earth.
The two side mounted boosters landed nearly simultaneously back at the Cape; the center booster successfully came down on the recovery barge “Of Course I Still Love You”. Unfortunately, high seas on the trip back to the Cape led to the loss of the rocket when the crew was unable to secure it. They did successfully recover the fairings that had covered the Arabsat satellite during the launch though.
SpaceX was planning a manned mission using the Crew Dragon sometime this year. It is not known what the anomaly will mean for that schedule. Currently the U.S. must rely on Russian launch vehicles to send people to the I.S.S.
Boeing is also developing a manned capsule, the Starliner. It has a test flight coming up in August, and a manned flight later this year as well if the test flight works out. Boeing is having its own series of anomalies in its airliner business, however, which is raising questions about the quality of its management.
One way or another, the U.S. will have an alternative to Russian launch systems for manned spaceflight, if not this year, probably no later than 2020.