NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) was formed to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable, and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX Crew-1 was the first full astronaut mission SpaceX flew to the International Space Station using the Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft. It launched on November 15, 2020 with four astronauts: Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi. The mission showed that SpaceX could safely and regularly carry people to space for NASA. The crew lived on the ISS for about six months, doing experiments and helping with station work, making Crew-1 an important step in modern space travel.
SpaceX Crew-2 was the second operational astronaut mission SpaceX flew to the International Space Station for NASA. It launched on April 23, 2021 aboard the Crew Dragon “Endeavour.” The crew included NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet from Europe. They spent about six months on the ISS, working on science experiments, maintaining the station, and even performing spacewalks. Crew-2 showed how smoothly SpaceX and NASA could continue sending astronauts to space, helping keep the ISS running and advancing space research.