Reddit A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Resilience for NASA SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission are seen inside the SpaceX Hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 9, 2020, before rollout to Launch Pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX Years of design, development, and testing have culminated in NASA officially certifying the first commercial spacecraft system in history capable of transporting humans to and from the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA completed the signing of the Human Rating Certification Plan Tuesday for SpaceX ’s crew transportation system after a thorough Flight Readiness Review ahead of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the space station. “I’m extremely proud to say we are returning regular human spaceflight launches to American soil on an American rocket and spacecraft,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “This certification milestone is an incredible achievement from NASA and SpaceX that highlights the progress we can make working together with the commercial industry.” A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft stands tall on the launch pad at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida on Tuesday, November 10, after being rolled out overnight. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky The Crew Dragon, including the Falcon 9 rocket and associated ground systems, is the first new, crew spacecraft to be NASA-certified for regular flights with astronauts since the space shuttle nearly 40 years ago. Several critical events paved the way for this achievement, including ground tests, simulations, uncrewed flight tests, and NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley earlier this year. “Today’s signing is about the people across NASA, SpaceX, and other groups that came together to complete an unbelievable amount of hard work to accomplish this task,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operation Mission Directorate. “Certification moves us from the design and test phase into the crew rotation phase of our work, but we will not stop making sure every flight, including NASA’s Space Crew-1 mission, will be approached with the same rigor we have put into making this the best system it can be for our astronauts.” The launch of the Demo-2 mission on May 30, 2020, marked the first time astronauts flew aboard the American rocket and spacecraft from the U.S. to the space station, and extensive analysis of the test flight data followed the safe return of Behnken and Hurley on August 2. Prior to Demo-2, NASA and SpaceX completed several demonstration flights to prove the system was ready to fly astronauts. In 2015, teams completed a Crew Dragon pad abort test during which the spacecraft demonstrated the ability to escape the launch pad in the event of an emergency prior to liftoff. In March 2019, NASA and SpaceX took another major step toward restoring America’s human spaceflight capability when Crew Dragon returned safely to Earth after spending five days docked to the space station for NASA’s SpaceX Demo-1 mission. The test flight was the first launch, docking and return of the commercially built and operated American spacecraft. In January 2020, NASA and SpaceX completed a launch escape demonstration of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. During the test, SpaceX configured Crew Dragon to intentionally trigger a launch escape prior to 1 minute and 30 seconds into the flight to demonstrate Crew Dragon’s capability to safely carry the astronauts to safety in the unlikely event of an in-flight emergency. The astronauts for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission pose for a photo in front of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience by the crew, inside the SpaceX hangar at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on November 8, 2020. From left, JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, mission specialist; NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, spacecraft commander; NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, mission specialist; and NASA astronaut Victor Glover, pilot. Credit: SpaceX “Thank you to NASA for their continued support of SpaceX and partnership in achieving this goal,” said SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk. “I could not be more proud of everyone at SpaceX and all of our suppliers who worked incredibly hard to develop, test, and fly the first commercial human spaceflight system in history to be certified by NASA. This is a great honor that inspires confidence in our endeavor to return to the Moon, travel to Mars