Development of the Commercial Crew Program

Starting from top image: the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, Crew Dragon, Dream Chaser, and at bottom human-rated Atlas V projects all received developmental funding through CCDev awards and contracts

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Development of the Commercial Crew Program (CCDev) began in the second round of the program, which was rescoped from a smaller technology development program for human spaceflight to a competitive development program that would produce the spacecraft to be used to provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station (ISS). To implement the program, NASA awarded a series of competitive fixed-price contracts to private vendors starting in 2011. Operational contracts to fly astronauts were awarded in September 2014 to SpaceX and Boeing, and NASA expected each company to complete development and achieve crew rating in 2017.^[1] Each company performed an uncrewed orbital test flight in 2019.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-1 2019 flight of Dragon 2 arrived at the International Space Station in March 2019 and returned via splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. After completion of its test series, a Crew Dragon spacecraft made its first operational Commercial Crew Program flight, SpaceX Crew-1. The flight launched on November 16, 2020.^[2] As of September 2023^[update] SpaceX has completed seven successful CCP flights with another, SpaceX Crew-8, currently in progress. It is contracted with NASA for fourteen operational flights total to the ISS.

The 2019 Boeing Orbital Flight Test of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft failed to reach the ISS in December 2019. The second test flight, Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2, occurred successfully in May 2022.^[3][4][5] Pending completion of its demonstration flights, Boeing is contracted to supply six operational flights to the ISS.^[6] The first group of astronauts was announced on August 3, 2018.^[7] The first Starliner crewed flight test launched on June 5, 2024.^[8] Starliner successfully docked with the station on June 6, 2024 after suffering several helium leaks and thruster malfunctions.^[9][10][11] Due to these issues Starliner’s return to earth was delayed initially to June 26, 2024, then indefinitely.^[12][13] On August 24, 2024 NASA administrator Bill Nelson made the decision to send the Starliner crew back home on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.^[14]