Crew Dragon

Crew Dragon emerged from NASA''s Commercial Crew Program, which sought to end American reliance on Russian Soyuz vehicles for astronaut transport to the International Space Station following the Space Shuttle''s retirement in 2011. SpaceX won a $2.6 billion contract in 2014 to develop and fly the vehicle.

The spacecraft is an evolution of the cargo Dragon, enlarged and redesigned to carry up to seven astronauts. Its interior replaced the traditional toggle switches and circuit breakers of previous spacecraft with large touchscreen displays, a design choice that was initially controversial among veteran astronauts but has proven effective. The vehicle docks autonomously with the ISS, though crew can take manual control if needed.

Demo-2, launched on May 30, 2020, carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS, marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil since STS-135 in July 2011. The mission also represented the first crewed orbital flight by a commercially built and operated spacecraft. Since then, Crew Dragon has flown regular crew rotation missions to the ISS, private missions including Inspiration4 (the first all-civilian orbital mission), and the Polaris program flights.

Crew Dragon''s SuperDraco abort engines can pull the capsule away from a failing rocket at any point during ascent, a capability that was dramatically demonstrated during an in-flight abort test in January 2020. The vehicle is partially reusable, with capsules flying multiple missions after refurbishment.