Commercial Crew Program

The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) is NASA's acquisition program for end-to-end astronaut transportation to and from the International Space Station. NASA awarded fixed-price Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts in 2014 with maximum values of 2.6 billion dollars for SpaceX and 4.2 billion dollars for Boeing. The companies developed and operate their own systems, while NASA certifies them and buys missions as a service.^[1][2][3]

As of November 14, 2026, Crew Dragon has launched 14 CCP flights with astronauts: the Demo-2 test flight and 13 certified crew-rotation missions, Crew-1 through Crew-13.^[6] Crew-13 has been at the station since October 1.^[26][27] Boeing's CST-100 Starliner has launched one crewed test, but the capsule returned without its crew and the system has not been certified for operational rotations.^[1]

Status as of November 2026#

Crew-13 is the active rotation on November 14, 2026.^[35] Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov launched on October 1 and docked 7 hours and 55 minutes later, the fastest launch-to-docking by a US spacecraft in the station's history.^[26][27] Crew-12 splashed down off California on October 8 after 237 days in space.^[28] On September 18, NASA ordered Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17 from SpaceX for 946 million dollars, raising the contract to 17 missions worth 5.92 billion dollars; Crew-14 is targeted for no earlier than spring 2027.^[24][30] Starliner remains uncertified. On September 28, NASA said the uncrewed Starliner-1 could fly in December 2026 or January 2027 and that it intends to exercise the options for a fifth and sixth Starliner flight. It will also work with Boeing and United Launch Alliance to certify Vulcan for flights after the Atlas V's last mission. NASA's current plan is to return astronauts on Starliner-2 by 2028.^[25] A member of NASA's safety advisory panel said on October 22 that Starliner-1 remained under review and would fly no earlier than mid-January.^[36]

What is operational now?#

The Commercial Crew Program has one NASA-certified transportation system. Crew Dragon is in routine service, while Starliner remains in testing and certification work.^[1]

The distinction between a crewed test and certified service matters. Starliner demonstrated that it could launch astronauts and dock, but CFT did not complete the planned crewed return. It therefore did not establish operational crew-rotation capability.^[1][7]

How did NASA get here?#

The Space Shuttle retired in July 2011. Until Crew Dragon's Demo-2 launch in May 2020, NASA depended on Russia's Soyuz for crew access to the station. NASA's Office of Inspector General reported in 2019 that a Soyuz seat cost 21.3 million dollars in 2006, while seats purchased for flights after 2017 averaged 79.7 million dollars. The final seat in that audit's purchase schedule cost 90.3 million dollars.^[20]

NASA began competitive commercial crew development awards in 2010 and followed them with progressively larger design and testing rounds. The September 2014 contracts funded certification work, test flights, and an initial order of operational missions. Rather than specifying and owning a government spacecraft, NASA set safety and performance requirements, reviewed the designs, and paid providers against contract milestones.^[1][2][3]

The fixed-price structure shifted much development risk to the providers, but it did not freeze every NASA cost. Changes in mission orders and additional agency requirements produced contract modifications, and NASA separately funded testing facilities, certification work, and flight-readiness activities that it determined were outside the original contract requirements.^[1]

Which Crew Dragon missions have flown?#

SpaceX completed the uncrewed Demo-1 orbital test in March 2019 and an in-flight abort test in January 2020. Demo-2 launched Hurley and Behnken on May 30, 2020, and returned them on August 2. NASA certified the Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 system that November, before Crew-1 began post-certification service.^{[12][13][14][15]}

NASA's Commercial Crew press kit and individual mission pages give the following flight record.^{[4][6][12][16][18][21][23][24][26][28][30]}

Crew-11 carried NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. NASA ended the mission about a month early because of a medical concern involving one crew member, whom the agency described as stable. The capsule splashed down off California on January 15, 2026, after 167 days in space.^[16]

Crew-12 launched Meir, Hathaway, ESA astronaut Adenot, and Fedyaev on February 13, 2026. The spacecraft docked at 3:15 p.m. EST the next day, and the four joined the station's long-duration crew. Meir became commander when Expedition 75 began in July.^[4][5][23] The crew came home in the capsule Freedom, splashing down in the Pacific off Los Angeles at 8:34 a.m. PDT on October 8, 2026, after 237 days in space. Meir made four spacewalks during the mission, bringing her career total to seven, and Adenot made three, becoming the first French woman to go outside the station.^[28]

Crew-13 is the 13th post-certification rotation. Watkins is commander, Delaney is pilot, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Teteryatnikov are mission specialists.^[6][31] NASA had targeted no earlier than September 12,^[34] but in late August the agency and SpaceX postponed the launch after an oxidizer leak in Dragon's propulsion system was found during prelaunch processing.^[31] The crew lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 11:10 a.m. EDT on October 1, 2026, and docked to the Harmony module's forward port at 7:05 p.m. EDT. The 7-hour, 55-minute trip was the fastest launch-to-docking by a US spacecraft in the station's history.^[26][27] NASA expects the crew to return in 2027.^[6]

NASA named the Crew-14 crew on September 24, 2026: NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, the commander, and Chris Birch, the pilot, with JAXA astronaut Makoto Suwa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Arutyun Kiviryan as mission specialists. The flight is targeted for no earlier than spring 2027. Barron previously spent 177 days in space on Crew-3.^[30]

Why is Starliner still uncertified?#

Starliner's first uncrewed Orbital Flight Test, OFT-1, launched in December 2019 but did not reach the station after timing and software failures. OFT-2 docked successfully in May 2022, although that flight also produced technical findings that required follow-up. CFT launched Wilmore and Williams on June 5, 2024, for a test planned to last eight to 14 days.^[1][7][12]

During CFT rendezvous, five service-module maneuvering thrusters stopped responding after overheating. Four recovered after about 1 hour and 14 minutes of troubleshooting, but the interruption caused a temporary loss of the spacecraft's full maneuvering capability. Helium leaked from several propulsion-system seals, and one crew-module thruster later failed during the uncrewed return. The OIG found that service-module thruster failures had occurred on all three Starliner orbital flights.^[1]

NASA decided on August 24, 2024, that Starliner would return without Wilmore and Williams because the agency lacked enough certainty about the propulsion system to accept a crewed return. The capsule landed at White Sands on September 7. Wilmore and Williams remained on the station and returned aboard Crew-9 on March 18, 2025, after 286 days in space.^[17][18]

NASA released its CFT Program Investigation Team report on February 19, 2026, and formally classified the event as a Type A mishap. The classification reflected the temporary loss of maneuverability and financial-damage threshold; no one was injured. The report did not close the vehicle's technical investigations.^[7] The investigation made 61 recommendations to NASA.^[25] In its June 2026 audit, the OIG said Boeing had logged about 100 in-flight anomalies and observations from CFT. As of March, helium leaks and propulsion failures remained unresolved, damaged parachute attachment rings still required monitoring, and completed technical investigations had not yet identified root causes for the main failures.^[1]

NASA and Boeing gave a technical update on September 28, 2026. NASA said ground testing and analysis had traced the service-module thruster problems to a combination of factors, including the thermal environment and features inherent in the thruster design. Boeing has made thermal modifications to the service module that NASA will evaluate on Starliner-1, and the two have agreed on a further thruster valve redesign, aimed at poppet seal extrusion, to be completed after that flight. Boeing also plans new crew-module thrusters, new batteries, and minor parachute changes.^[25] Boeing said that 19 of the 21 in-flight anomalies from CFT had been closed and that it expected the rest to close in October, although some fixes need an in-flight demonstration on Starliner-1 to be fully resolved.^[29]

What must happen before Starliner carries a rotation crew?#

NASA and Boeing changed the flight plan and contract in November 2025. Starliner-1 will carry cargo without crew and test the modified integrated system in orbit. Only after a successful Starliner-1 flight, completion of certification, and a flight-readiness process can Boeing fly a crew on a later rotation.^[1][19]

Through the summer, NASA's Starliner-1 launch page and its May 2026 station flight plan listed the launch as under review while technical work and investigation actions continued and NASA assessed station traffic.^[8][10] Boeing's July 2026 quarterly filing set out the company's no-earlier-than fourth-quarter expectation and said the timing and requirements for later flights were uncertain.^[9]

NASA set a new schedule on September 28, 2026. It said Starliner-1 could fly in December 2026 or January 2027 as an engineering evaluation mission to verify the improved thermal environment, gather performance data for system qualification, and identify residual risk before crewed flights.^[25] Administrator Jared Isaacman said NASA's current plan was to return astronauts on Starliner-2 by 2028.^[25] He named NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg as the flight's commander, and Boeing said it was targeting the middle of 2028.^[32][33] NASA also said it intends to exercise the options for a fifth and sixth Starliner flight and will work with Boeing and United Launch Alliance to certify Vulcan for use after the Atlas V's final flight.^[25] Boeing described the contract change as restoring those two missions.^[29]

The December option did not last. Kent Rominger, a former astronaut who sits on NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said at the panel's public meeting on October 22, 2026 that the Starliner-1 date remained under review and would be no earlier than mid-January 2027. The panel called dependable crew transportation to low Earth orbit its first priority, ahead of any destination there, noting that Crew Dragon is the only US vehicle now able to carry crews and that SpaceX has said it will wind down Falcon once Starship flies reliably.^[36]

Starliner-1 occupies a contract mission slot valued by the OIG at more than 300 million dollars, but an uncrewed cargo flight cannot validate crewed undocking and return. The OIG therefore found that some certification work will remain after the mission. Its audit judged a fall 2026 certification unrealistic and said certification may move into 2027. That is an oversight assessment, not a NASA target date.^[1]

How much has the program cost?#

NASA had invested more than 9.8 billion dollars in commercial crew since 2014 as of April 2026, according to the OIG. About 8.7 billion dollars was in the two CCtCap contracts and 1.1 billion dollars paid for related certification, facilities, testing, and flight-readiness work outside those contracts. SpaceX's contract value was then about 4.9 billion dollars after NASA added eight rotations, for 14 in all. Boeing's value had fallen to about 3.7 billion dollars after two mission orders were removed.^[1] NASA's September 18, 2026 order for Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17 added 946 million dollars, covering ground, launch, in-orbit, return, and recovery operations, cargo transport, and a lifeboat capability while docked. It brought the total value of SpaceX's CCtCap contract to 5.92 billion dollars for 17 missions.^[24] On September 28, NASA said it expected to pay an additional 359 million dollars for Starliner's upgrades and the certification of Vulcan for crew flights.^[32][33]

Fixed-price contracting limited some government exposure and required both companies to invest their own money. It did not eliminate cost growth. Beyond added mission orders, OIG found that design, development, test, and evaluation changes for added NASA requirements increased SpaceX's estimated work by 126.8 million dollars, or about 11 percent, and Boeing's by 269.4 million dollars, or about 14 percent. NASA also paid SpaceX 17 million dollars to accelerate two flights when Boeing could not meet the rotation schedule.^[1]

Seat prices require historical context. A 2019 OIG estimate put the average cost at about 55 million dollars per Crew Dragon seat and 90 million dollars per Starliner seat, assuming four NASA-sponsored seats on a mission and the contract values then available.^[20] Those figures are program estimates from 2019, not current ticket prices. NASA priced its 2022 award by mission, so dividing the total modification value by a nominal seat count does not produce a comparable per-seat figure.^[21]

How many more flights does NASA need?#

NASA's 2022 SpaceX order covers Crew-10 through Crew-14. The OIG said Crew-13 and Crew-14 would maintain contracted transportation through October 2027. Its illustrative schedule reached spring 2029 only by assuming the three conditional Boeing crew rotations would fly at six-month intervals. Because Starliner-1 no longer rotates a crew, the audit concluded that NASA must procure at least three additional missions to keep the station fully staffed through its planned deorbit near the end of 2030.^[1][21]

The May 2026 federal notice proposed a sole-source SpaceX modification for as many as six additional post-certification missions, with up to three ordered at first. It identified SpaceX as the only certified US provider. The notice expressed NASA's procurement intent; it did not make all six flights firm orders.^[11] Following that notice, NASA ordered three missions, Crew-15 through Crew-17, on September 18, 2026, with mission readiness dates in 2027 and 2028 and a period of performance through 2030. The agency said the sole-source change did not preclude further modifications for more transportation services.^[24] Ten days later, NASA said it intends to exercise Boeing's two remaining options, which would restore Starliner's order to six missions.^[19][25]

NASA plans to replace the International Space Station with services from commercially owned stations rather than another NASA-owned low Earth orbit laboratory. Transportation acquisitions for those destinations will be separate decisions, but commercial crew established the service-purchase model NASA expects to use.^[22] In September 2026, NASA said it had been committed to multiple crew transportation options since the program began and intends to see Starliner fly to the station and to future commercial destinations.^[25] Isaacman also said he did not think it was "a secret that SpaceX intends to sunset older platforms like Falcon and Dragon" as the company concentrates on Starship, and that NASA saw Starliner as "the fastest path to preserving reliable crewed access to low Earth orbit."^[33] Until Starliner completes its remaining work, the original goal of two dissimilar certified US crew systems remains unmet.^[1]

References#

1. NASA's Management of Its Commercial Crew Program (IG-26-011) - NASA Office of Inspector General, June 30, 2026.
2. Commercial Crew Program - Essentials - NASA.
3. NASA Chooses American Companies to Transport U.S. Astronauts to International Space Station - NASA, September 16, 2014.
4. NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 - NASA.
5. Expedition 75 - NASA.
6. NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 - NASA, updated October 8, 2026.
7. NASA Releases Report on Starliner Crewed Flight Test Investigation - NASA, February 19, 2026.
8. NASA's Boeing Starliner-1 - NASA, updated May 1, 2026.
9. The Boeing Company Form 10-Q for the Quarter Ended June 30, 2026 - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, July 28, 2026.
10. NASA, Partners Update International Space Station 2026 Flight Plan - NASA, May 1, 2026.
11. Commercial Crew Transportation Capabilities Contract Notice - NASA procurement notice on SAM.gov, May 18, 2026.
12. Commercial Crew Program Press Kit - NASA.
13. NASA, SpaceX Complete Final Major Flight Test of Crew Spacecraft - NASA, January 19, 2020.
14. NASA Astronauts Launch from America in Historic Test Flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon - NASA, May 30, 2020.
15. NASA Certifies First Commercial Human Spaceflight System - NASA, November 10, 2020.
16. NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Mission Returns, Splashes Down off California - NASA, January 15, 2026.
17. NASA Decides to Bring Starliner Spacecraft Back to Earth Without Crew - NASA, August 24, 2024.
18. Back to Earth, Forward to the Future: NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Returns - NASA, March 18, 2025.
19. NASA, Boeing Modify Commercial Crew Contract - NASA, November 24, 2025.
20. NASA's Management of Crew Transportation to the International Space Station (IG-20-005) - NASA Office of Inspector General, November 14, 2019.
21. NASA Awards SpaceX More Crew Flights to Space Station - NASA, August 31, 2022.
22. Commercial Space Stations - NASA.
23. SpaceX Crew-12 Docks to Station Beginning Long-Duration Mission - NASA, February 14, 2026.
24. NASA Awards SpaceX Three Crew Flights to Space Station - NASA, September 18, 2026.
25. NASA, Boeing Share Update on Commercial Starliner Development Plans - NASA, September 28, 2026.
26. NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Launches to International Space Station - NASA, October 1, 2026.
27. Dragon Docks Bringing SpaceX Crew-13 to Station - NASA, October 1, 2026.
28. NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 Splashes Down, Sets Briefing to Discuss Mission - NASA, October 8, 2026.
29. NASA, Boeing update Starliner contract and set launch window for next mission - Boeing, September 28, 2026.
30. NASA Shares SpaceX Crew-14 Assignments for Space Station Mission - NASA, September 24, 2026.
31. NASA, SpaceX Adjust Crew-13 Launch Date - NASA, August 29, 2026.
32. Next Crewed Boeing Starliner Flight Not Until 2028 - SpacePolicyOnline, September 28, 2026.
33. NASA reveals new plan for Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft - CNN, September 28, 2026.
34. NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 - NASA, updated August 5, 2026, archived August 17, 2026.
35. Botany, Biomedicine, and Cargo Ops Wrap Up Week Aboard Station - NASA, November 13, 2026.
36. NASA Safety Panel Concerned About Artemis IV, Future Access to LEO - SpacePolicyOnline, October 22, 2026.