NASA gives green signal to SpaceX's first crewed flight on May 27

Washington : Two astronauts have been made ready to test drive the SpaceX's brand new rocket ship, ending nine year long wait for NASA to send humans in the space. The planned flight will take off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center next week.

NASA and SpaceX administrators said at a briefing Friday that the launch is good to go as planned after a clean review. 

"There's quite a bit of it between now and launch, but we are ready to launch on Wednesday, May 27th at 4:33 p.m." said NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk. 

If the project becomes successful then SpaceX – headed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk - will become the first private firm to send Nasa astronauts into space.

The Falcon Nine rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft will take off from the space centre’s historic Pad 39A, the same one used for the Apollo and shuttle missions.

It will take astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley approximately 24 hours to reach the ISS.

One American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are currently aboard the ISS.