It's official: SpaceX is not going to meet its 2017 deadline to carry its first astronauts into space. The first crewed flight of the Dragon capsule has been pushed back from August 2017 to May 2018.

Since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011, American astronauts have been bumming rides from Russia to get to the International Space Station. Boeing and SpaceX are vying to bring those launches back to American soil, hopefully cutting costs in the process, and all while becoming the first private companies to launch astronauts into space.

Unfortunately, it appears NASA's goal of launching those history-making missions may have been a bit too ambitious. Both companies had aimed to finish their uncrewed and crewed test flights before the end of 2017, but both companies have slipped the deadline. Boeing announced earlier this year that it wouldn't be sending astronauts into orbit until 2018, due to some technical difficulties.

SpaceX, too, has had its fair share of difficulties—including the explosive kind.