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. 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.
Commercial Crew Development phase 1 (CCDev 1) consisted of $50 million awarded in 2010 to five US companies to develop human spaceflight concepts and technologies. NASA awarded development funds to five companies under CCDev 1:
On April 18, 2011, NASA awarded nearly $270 million to four companies for developing U.S. vehicles that could fly astronauts after the Space Shuttle fleet's retirement. Funded proposals:
Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) was originally called CCDev 3. For this phase of the program, NASA wanted proposals to be complete, end-to-end concepts of operation, including spacecraft, launch vehicles, launch services, ground and mission operations, and recovery. In September 2011, NASA released a draft request for proposals (RFP). The final RFP was released on February 7, 2012, with proposals due on March 23, 2012. The funded Space Act Agreements were awarded on August 3, 2012, and amended on August 15, 2013.
The first phase of the Certification Products Contract (CPC) involved the development of a certification plan with engineering standards, tests, and analyses. Winners of funding of phase 1 of the CPC, announced on December 10, 2012, were:
The Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) is the second phase of the CPC and included the final development, testing and verifications to allow crewed demonstration flights to the ISS. NASA issued the draft CCtCap contract's Request For Proposals (RFP) on July 19, 2013, with a response date of August 15, 2013. On September 16, 2014, NASA announced that Boeing and SpaceX had received contracts to provide crewed launch services to the ISS. Boeing could receive up to US$4.2 billion, while SpaceX could receive up to US$2.6 billion. Dragon was the less expensive proposal, but NASA's William H. Gerstenmaier considered the Boeing Starliner proposal the stronger of the two. In November 2019 NASA published a first cost per seat estimate: US$55 million for SpaceX's Dragon and US$90 million for Boeing's Starliner. Boeing was also granted an additional $287.2 million above the fixed price contract. Seats on Soyuz had an average cost of US$80 million. However, adjusting for the additional cargo carried by Boeing's Starliner inside its crew capsule, the adjusted cost per seat figure is approximately $70 million, which is still higher than SpaceX's Crew Dragon even if the Dragon does not carry the equivalent of a fifth passenger in cargo. Both the CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon were to fly an uncrewed flight, then a crewed certification flight, then up to six operational flights to the ISS.
The first flight of the Commercial Crew Program was planned to occur in 2015, but insufficient funding caused delays. As the spacecraft entered the testing and production phase, technical issues also caused delays, especially the parachute system, propulsion, and the launch abort system of both capsules.
On April 20, 2019, an issue arose during a static fire test of Crew Dragon. The accident destroyed the capsule which was planned to be used for the In-Flight Abort Test (IFAT). SpaceX confirmed that the capsule exploded. NASA stated that the explosion would delay the planned in-flight abort and crewed orbital tests.
During the first orbital flight test of Starliner in December 2019, the spacecraft reached orbit but was unable to dock with ISS due to a critical software error. Subsequent analysis revealed a second critical software error that could cause the service module to collide with the capsule after separation during the de-orbiting sequence.
On May 30, 2020, two astronauts were launched to the ISS with a Crew Dragon as part of Crew Dragon Demo-2. The end and safe landing of Demo-2 on August 2, 2020, marked the first splashdown in 45 years for NASA astronauts since the first Apollo–Soyuz U.S./U.S.S.R international space mission in July 1975, as well as the first splashdown of a crew spacecraft in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shortly before the scheduled launch of the second orbital flight test in August 2021, routine pre-launch testing showed that thirteen valves in the propulsion system were inoperable and the launch was scrubbed. The problem required extensive analysis that was still ongoing in October 2021, and NASA and Boeing estimated that a new launch date would be scheduled in the first half of 2022.
Days before a planned launch, Boeing announced in June 2023 that it would delay the Crewed Flight Test indefinitely due to issues with the parachute system and wiring harnesses. The mission entails flying a crew of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station for a one-week test flight. The Crewed Flight Test successfully launched on June 5, 2024. The Starliner spacecraft docked to the International Space Station the next day after troubleshooting issues with the thrusters on the vehicle. After more thruster testing, both in space and using another Starliner vehicle on Earth, NASA announced on August 24, 2024, that the two astronauts on the mission, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, would not return to Earth on Starliner, but instead fly back on Crew Dragon with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The Starliner spacecraft successfully landed on the September 7, 2024. NASA confirmed on October 15, 2024 that Starliner would not be used for the following two crew rotation missions. In October 2024, Boeing started exploring part of it’s space business.
The first flight of the Commercial Crew Program was planned to occur in 2015, but insufficient funding caused delays. For the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget, US$500 million was requested for the CCDev program, but Congress granted only $270 million. For the FY 2012 budget, $850 million was requested and $406 million approved. For the FY 2013 budget, 830 million was requested and $488 million approved. For the FY 2014 budget, $821 million was requested and $696 million approved. In FY 2015, $848 million was requested and $805 million, or 95%, was approved. On November 14, 2019, NASA's inspector general published an auditing report listing per-seat prices of $90 million for Starliner and $55 million for Dragon Crew. With these, Boeing's price is higher than what NASA has paid the Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, for Soyuz spacecraft seats to fly US and partner-nation astronauts to the space station. The report also states that NASA agreed to pay an additional $287.2 million above Boeing's fixed prices to mitigate a perceived 18-month gap in ISS flights anticipated in 2019 and to ensure the contractor continued as a second commercial crew provider, without offering similar opportunities to SpaceX. On November 18, 2019, Boeing's Jim Chilton replied that the inspector general's report failed to list Starliner’s positive features and objected to the per seat pricing as they believe the cost is lower than $90 million given its cargo capacity. Boeing's reasoning for the extra funding was due to a later start to its development than SpaceX with comparable deadlines. Boeing also stated it committed to the program. The funding of all commercial crew contractors for each phase of the CCP program is as follows—CCtCap values are maxima and include six post-development operational flights for each vendor.
Funding summary (in millions of 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.
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.
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