Crew Dragon

Crew Dragon was developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. In September 2014 NASA chose Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station from the United States, under firm fixed-price contracts worth up to $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion. The companies own and operate their spacecraft, and NASA buys transportation services.

NASA describes Dragon as an autonomous spacecraft that can carry up to seven passengers; on NASA missions it carries up to four crew members. It launches on Falcon 9 and is designed for water landings. Its first crewed flight, Demo-2, launched NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the station on May 30, 2020—the first astronaut launch from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011. NASA certified the system for crew flights in November 2020.

Crew-13, SpaceX’s 13th crew rotation mission for NASA, launched on October 1, 2026. In September 2026 NASA ordered Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17 for $946 million, bringing SpaceX’s contract to $5.92 billion for 17 missions.

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