SpaceX is preparing for its first test flight of their Crew Dragon spacecraft which will travel to the International Space Station tomorrow on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. The unmanned flight will mark the first time a commercially-built American craft designed to carry astronauts will travel to the space station from US soil. There will be no astronauts aboard but in their place will be a mannequin, named Ripley after the character in the 'Alien' movies, which is equipped with sensors that will provide key data for future manned missions. Scroll down for video SpaceX is preparing for its first test flight of its Crew Dragon spacecraft which will fly to the International Space Station tomorrow on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. The unmanned flight will mark the first time a commercially-built American craft designed to carry astronauts will travel to the space station from US soil The rocket will launch at 7.79am GMT (2.49am EST) tomorrow from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and is scheduled to dock at the station at around 11.05am GMT (6.05 a.m EST). Crew Dragon is part of NASA's $8 billion (£6 bn) Commercial Crew Program, which was created to restore the agency's ability to launch astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA and SpaceX are working together as public-private partnerships to 'build on the success of American companies already delivering cargo to the space station', NASA wrote in a blog post. Theyretired its space shuttle program in July 2011 and has been sending astronauts on Russian Soyuz spacecraft since then. The test, the first launch of U.S. astronauts from U.S. soil in eight years, will inform the system design, operations and drive any changes that need to be made ahead of crew flights. On Thursday, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, revealed the mannequin has a female body and spacesuit and will serve to verify that the craft is safe to fly astronauts. Crew Dragon will carry about 400 pounds of crew supplies and equipment to the space station and return some critical research samples to Earth. There will be no astronauts aboard but in their place will be a mannequin, named Ripley after the character in the 'Alien' movies, which is equipped with sensors that will provide key data for future missions. The rocket will launch at 7.79am GMT (2.49am EST) tomorrow from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and is scheduled to dock at the station at around 11.05am GMT (6.05 a.m EST) Crew Dragon is part of NASA's roughly $8 billion Commercial Crew Program, which was created to restore the agency's ability to launch people to the International Space Station. NASA retired its space shuttle program in July 2011, and has been sending astronauts on Russian Soyuz spacecraft since then. It would be the first launch of U.S. astronauts from U.S. soil in eight years Elon Musk tweeted this image of Ripley, the mannequin named after the lead character in Alien. NASA and SpaceX are working together as public-private partnerships to build on the success of American companies already delivering cargo to the space station, NASA wrote in a blog post 'Demo-1 is a demonstration of the Falcon 9 rocket, Crew Dragon spacecraft, ground systems and overall operations - basically just about everything that needs to be operating and operating well before we want to put our astronauts on-board, said the NASA officials in the post. 'Our main goals are to validate as many aspects of the spacecraft's systems as we can without a crew on-board, monitor its approach and docking to the space station, and then monitor the undocking, deorbit, entry and splashdown.' Space X has been making space station shipments since 2012 but the first manned mission will be the first it will dock at the ISS and return astronauts to the US. NASA described the manned missions as the 'dawn of a new era' of space exploration, with plans to eventually send astronauts to Mars. The agency also plan to take man back to the moon by 2028 for the first time since 1972 and claim that they will go back and forth regularly. The test, the first launch of U.S. astronauts from U.S. soil in eight years, will inform the system design, operations and drive any changes that need to be made ahead of crew flights A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolled to the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-1 mission The company posted this image of the Crew Dragon yesterday. Nasa described the manned missions as the 'dawn of a new era' of space exploration, with plans to eventually send astronauts to Mars RUSSIA'S SOYUZ: DECADES OF BLASTING INTO SPACE The Soyuz programme is an ongoing human spaceflight programme which was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, originally part of a Moon landing project. There have been 138 manned missions, of which 11 have failed and one astronaut has died. Here are some of the notable failures, including one in 1967 when an astronaut was killed, one in 1975 when two astronauts hurtle to Earth. 1967: Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov was killed during landing due to a parachute failure 1975: Two Russian astronauts had to abort a mission to a Russian space station at an altitude of 90miles due to a rocket failure. They hurtled towards Earth and safely landed in the Altai Mountains on the Russia-China border. One of the astronauts never flew to space again, never fully recovered from the accident and died aged 62 in 1990. The other made two more flights. 1983: A rocket malfunctioned during the countdown to take off in southern Kazakhstan. Automatic systems ejected the two Russian crew-members just seconds before the rocket exploded. The fire burned on the launch pad for 20 hours. 2002: A Soyuz ship carrying a satellite crashed during launch in Russia when a booster suffered an engine malfunction. The ship landed near the launch pad, killing one engineer on the ground. 2011: A Soyuz-U mission carrying cargo failed to launch to the International Space Station when the upper stage experienced a problem and broke up over Siberia. 2016: Another cargo ship was lost shortly after launch, likely due to a problem with the third stage of the Soyuz-U. August 2018: A hole in a Soyuz capsule docked to the International Space Station caused a brief loss of air pressure and had to be patched. The Russians claimed the hole was drilled deliberately in an act of sabotage either on Earth or in orbit. Another theory is that the hole was a production defect. Previous cargo Dragon vehicles have been attached to the space station after capture by the station's robotic arm. The Crew Dragon will fly in all the way to dock using new sensor systems, new propulsion systems and docking mechanism to attach to station. Previous SpaceX launches have been postponed because of poor weather conditions but meteorologists predict an 80 per cent chance of favourable conditions. No launch date has been set for the manned missions to the ISS, though they could take place as early as April. Live coverage of the launch will be broadcast by both NASA and SpaceX on their websites. All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility