Development of the Commercial Crew Program

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. 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.[1] As of September 2023 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

Requirements

Key high-level requirements for the Commercial Crew vehicles include:

• Safely deliver and return four crew members and their equipment to the International Space Station (ISS)[14][15]
• Provide assured crew return in the event of an emergency[14]
• Serve as a 24-hour safe haven in the event of an emergency[14][15]
• Capable of remaining docked to the station for 210 days

Background

After the retirement of STS in 2011 and the cancellation of the Constellation program, NASA had no domestic vehicles capable of launching astronauts to space.[16] Artemis, NASA's next major human spaceflight initiative, was scheduled to launch an uncrewed qualification flight in 2016, with an Orion spacecraft atop a Space Launch System (SLS) booster. The NASA had no human-qualified spacecraft available, and in any event SLS/Orion would be too expensive for routine flights to the ISS. In the meantime, NASA continued to send astronauts to the ISS on Soyuz spacecraft seats purchased from Russia.[17] The price varied over time, with the batch of seats from 2016 to 2017 costing $70.7 million per passenger per flight.[18] Artemis continued to slip, with the first uncrewed test flight scheduled for 2022.[19]

Development Program

The CCDev program was initiated to develop safe and reliable commercial ISS crew launch capabilities to replace the Soyuz flights. CCDev followed Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), an ISS commercial cargo program. CCDev contracts were issued for fixed-price, pay-for-performance milestones.[20] CCDev was implemented in several phases. CCDev 1 contracts were for development of concepts and technologies. CCDev 2 contracts were for actual vehicle designs. CCiCap contracts were for designs of complete end-to-end crew transportation hardware and services. CPC phase 1 contracts were for the development of a full certification plan. Finally CCtCap contracts were awarded for actual demonstration of crewed transportation services, which included development, testing, and production of the required hardware followed by operational flights to the ISS.

Timeline

Funding

The first flight of the Commercial Crew Program was planned to occur in 2015, but insufficient funding caused delays.[59][60] For the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget, US$500 million was requested for the CCDev program, but Congress granted only $270 million.[84] For the FY 2012 budget, $850 million was requested and $406 million approved.[85] For the FY 2013 budget, 830 million was requested and $488 million approved.[86] For the FY 2014 budget, $821 million was requested and $696 million approved.[59][87] In FY 2015, $848 million was requested and $805 million, or 95%, was approved.

Test Missions

Each system is required to successfully complete abort testing, an uncrewed orbital flight test, and a crewed orbital flight test to meet NASA's requirements for human-rating certification. The agency did allow the companies to propose how they would complete the required tests, with Boeing opting not to perform an in-flight abort test, which NASA approved.[95]

Crew Dragon completed its flight tests in mid-2020 and began operational flights in November 2020. NASA will decide after September 2024 if Boeing has met its certification requirements after the problems experienced on its crew flight test.[96]

Operational missions

Crew Dragon began flying operational missions in November 2020 and had flown eleven missions.

, Starliner is not yet certified and has not flown any operational missions.

See also

• Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
• Commercial Resupply Services
• NASA Docking System
• Private spaceflight
• Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee
• Space Shuttle successors

External links

• Official NASA Commercial Crew Program page
• Official NASA Press Kit relating to the Commercial Crew Program
• Commercial Crew & Cargo Document Library on NASA.gov
• CCDev 1 Space Act agreements
• Partners Mature Spacecraft Designs, NASA video update, January 14, 2014.
• Boeing CCtCap Contract (redacted)
• SpaceX CCtCap Contract (redacted)