Alva Review-Courier -

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX closes in on human spaceflight with this weekend's debut of a new capsule designed for astronauts.

The six-day test flight will be real in every regard, beginning with a Florida liftoff Saturday and a docking the next day with the International Space Station. But the Dragon capsule won't carry humans, rather a test dummy — named Ripley after the tough heroine in the "Alien" films — in the same white SpaceX spacesuit that astronauts will wear.

NASA doesn't expect this crucial shakedown cruise to go perfectly. But the lessons learned should improve safety when...