• This Wednesday still photo from NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon spaceship as it separates from the engine just moments after launch during the first test of the Dragon's flight abortion sytem at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The entire flight test was over in less than two minutes, with the spacecraft hitting an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), then jettisoning its trunk before falling into the Atlantic Ocean about 1.4 miles away from the launchpad. | NASA TV / HANDOUT / AFP-JIJI
    This Wednesday still photo from NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon spaceship as it separates from the engine just moments after launch during the first test of the Dragon's flight abortion sytem at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The entire flight test was over in less than two minutes, with the spacecraft hitting an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), then jettisoning its trunk before falling into the Atlantic Ocean about 1.4 miles away from the launchpad. | NASA TV / HANDOUT / AFP-JIJI

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CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – A Space Exploration Technologies passenger spaceship made a quick debut test flight on Wednesday, shooting itself off a Florida launchpad to demonstrate a key emergency escape system.

The 20-foot-tall (6-meter) Dragon capsule, a modified version of the spacecraft that flies cargo to the International Space Station, fired up its eight, side-mounted thruster engines at 9 a.m. EDT/1300 GMT to catapult nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) up and over the Atlantic Ocean.

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