Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory.
Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke is an American astronaut who formerly held the American record for the most time in space. His record was broken by Scott Kelly on October 16, 2015.
Sunita Lyn Williams, nicknamed Suni in the United States and Sončka in Slovenia, is an American astronaut, United States Navy officer, and former record holder for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman. Williams was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and Expedition 15. In 2012, she served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then commander of Expedition 33.
Christopher J. "Fergy" Ferguson is a Boeing commercial astronaut and a retired United States Navy captain and NASA astronaut. He was the pilot of Space Shuttle Atlantis on his first mission to space, STS-115, which launched on September 9, 2006, and returned to Earth on September 21, 2006. He then commanded STS-126 aboard Space ShuttleEndeavour. In 2011, he was assigned as commander of STS-135, which was the final mission of the space shuttle program.
Barry Eugene "Butch" Wilmore is a NASA astronaut and United States Navy test pilot. He has had two spaceflights, the first of which was an 11-day Space Shuttle mission in November 2009, to the International Space Station. Wilmore was designated as pilot with five other crew members on Space Shuttle Atlantis for the mission STS-129. He most recently served as part of Expedition 41 to the International Space Station.
The Boeing Starliner is a class of two partially reusable spacecraft designed to transport crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. It is manufactured by Boeing, with the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) of NASA as the anchor customer. The spacecraft consists of a reusable crew capsule and an expendable service module.
Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in the second round of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, which was rescoped from a technology development program for human spaceflight to a competitive development program that would produce the spacecraft to be used in the Commercial Crew Program 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 operational flights started in November 2020.
Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by American space company SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX also launches private missions, such as Inspiration4 and Axiom Space Missions. There are two variants of the Dragon spacecraft: Crew Dragon, a spacecraft capable of ferrying four crewmembers, and Cargo Dragon, a replacement for the original Dragon 1 used to carry freight to and from space. The spacecraft consists of a reusable space capsule and an expendable trunk module. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and the capsule returns to Earth through splashdown.
Crew Dragon Demo-1 was the first orbital test of the Dragon 2 spacecraft. The mission launched on 2 March 2019 at 07:49:03 UTC, and arrived at the International Space Station on 3 March 2019, a little over 24 hours after the launch. The mission ended following a successful splashdown on 8 March 2019 at 13:45:08 UTC.
The Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test was the first orbital mission of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, conducted by Boeing as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission was planned to be an eight-day test flight of the spacecraft, involving a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station (ISS), and a landing in the western United States. The mission was launched on 20 December 2019 at 11:36:43 UTC or 06:36:43 AM EST; however an issue with the spacecraft's Mission Elapsed Time (MET) clock occurred 31 minutes into flight. This anomaly caused the spacecraft to burn into an incorrect orbit, preventing a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS). The mission was reduced to just two days, with the spacecraft successfully landing at White Sands Space Harbor on 22 December 2019.
Boeing Starliner-1 also called Post Certification Mission-1 (PCM-1) is planned to be the first operational crew mission of the Boeing Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Commercial Crew Program. It would be the fourth orbital flight mission of the Starliner overall. It is scheduled to launch no earlier than early 2025, transporting members of a future ISS Expedition.
The Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 was a repeat of Boeing's unsuccessful first Orbital Flight Test (Boe-OFT) of its Starliner spacecraft. The uncrewed mission was part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2, using Starliner Spacecraft 2, launched 19 May 2022 and lasted 6 days. Starliner successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on 21 May 2022. It stayed at the ISS for 4 days before undocking and landing in the White Sands Missile Range on 25 May 2022.
Boeing Starliner Calypso is a space capsule manufactured by Boeing and used in NASA's Commercial Crew Program. On 20 December 2019, Calypso launched on the Boeing Orbital Flight Test mission, an uncrewed test flight of Starliner to the International Space Station. The spacecraft was scheduled to dock to the ISS and then return to Earth following a week in space, although due to several software issues the spacecraft was unable to rendezvous with the station and landed after two days in space, resulting in Boeing needing to schedule a second Orbital Flight Test.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Space Station program. American space manufacturer SpaceX began providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and NASA plans to add Boeing when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational no earlier than 2025. NASA has contracted for six operational missions from Boeing and fourteen from SpaceX, ensuring sufficient support for ISS through 2030.
Crew Dragon Resilience is a Crew Dragon spacecraft manufactured by SpaceX and built under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. In November 2020, it was launched into orbit to the International Space Station as part of the Crew-1 mission. With crew prompting, Resilience docked autonomously to the station at 04:01 UTC on 17 November 2020, or Day 2 of the mission, marking the first operational docking of a Crew Dragon and the first operational docking of the Commercial Crew Program. The mission carried four additional members of Expedition 64 to the three already on station.
SpaceX Crew-2 was the second operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the third overall crewed orbital flight of the Commercial Crew Program. The mission was launched on 23 April 2021 at 09:49:02 UTC, and docked to the International Space Station on 24 April at 09:08 UTC.
Boeing Starliner Spacecraft 2 is the first of two active Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft developed and built under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft was originally scheduled to make its maiden flight on Boe-CFT, the first crewed flight test of the Starliner spacecraft, although following the partial failure of the other CST-100 on Boe-OFT which required a repeat uncrewed test (Boe-OFT-2) of the spacecraft to be scheduled, spacecraft 2 was reassigned to Boe-OFT-2 and also scheduled to fly Starliner-1 after being reassigned from CFT mission.
SpaceX Crew-4 was the Crew Dragon's fourth NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its seventh overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 27 April 2022 at 07:52 UTC before docking with the International Space Station (ISS) at 23:37 UTC. It followed shortly after the private Axiom 1 mission to the ISS earlier in the month utilizing SpaceX hardware. Three American (NASA) astronauts and one European (ESA) astronaut were on board the mission.
SpaceX Crew-5 was the fifth operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the eighth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission was successfully launched on 5 October 2022 with the aim of transporting four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the ISS on 6 October 2022 at 21:01 UTC.
