The Commercial Crew Program is NASA's partnership with private companies to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. Instead of owning the spacecraft, NASA certifies and purchases seats, the way an airline passenger buys a ticket.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon has flown regular rotation missions since 2020, ending America's nine-year gap in human launch capability after the shuttle retired. Boeing's Starliner is the second vehicle, certified after a long development road that included an eventful 2024 crewed test flight.
Commercial Crew changed who can go to space and what it costs. A seat on Crew Dragon runs NASA a fraction of what shuttle flights cost per astronaut, and the same vehicles now fly private crews. NASA got out of the taxi business and put the savings toward the Moon.
Key Facts
- First crewed flight
- SpaceX Demo-2, May 30, 2020
- Vehicles
- SpaceX Crew Dragon, Boeing Starliner
- Destination
- International Space Station
- Model
- NASA certifies and buys seats; companies own vehicles
- Crew per flight
- Typically 4
Timeline
September 2014
NASA awards contracts to SpaceX and Boeing
May 2020
Demo-2: first crewed orbital launch from US soil since 2011
June 2024
Starliner's first crewed test flight docks with the ISS
Next up
Ongoing crew rotation missions
Latest Commercial Crew News
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Facts last reviewed 2026-07-11. Official mission page: nasa.gov