Leading up to the Crew-1 Mission launch on Sunday, NASA has officially certified the SpaceX Crew Transportation System.
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 the landmark announcement, including grounds tests, simulations and uncrewed flight tests. Most notably was the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, the first successful test flight with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard earlier this year.