It has been 18 years in the making, but SpaceX may finally send its first manned mission into space.

The firm's president and COO Gwynne Shotwell revealed the California company is 'gunning for May' to fly astronauts aboard its Crew Dragon to the International Space Station.

Shotwell noted that NASA astronauts set to take the craft are currently in training by should be ready to go in two months.

The Commercial Crew Program will not position SpaceX as a front runner for space travel, but will also return human spaceflight capability to the US – a feat that has not been done in a decade.

Shotwell, who attened the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington, DC, was confident of the launch date but is aware of the hurdles that lay ahead of them, CNBC reported.

'We're going to have to go through a certification process,' she said.

The SpaceX president noted that the length of the mission is still under consideration, saying its "kind of TBD right now."