NASA, SpaceX Discuss Systems for Human Dragon Missions

Test crew included (from top left): NASA Crew Survival Engineering Team Lead Dustin Gohmert, NASA Astronaut Tony Antonelli, NASA Astronaut Lee Archambault, SpaceX Mission Operations Engineer Laura Crabtree, SpaceX Thermal Engineer Brenda Hernandez, NASA Astronaut Rex Walheim, and NASA Astronaut Tim Kopra. (Credit: Roger Gilbertson / SpaceX)

Commercial Crew Program
Status Update

Throughout the next several weeks, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will talk with NASA engineers about the systems necessary to support crewed flights in the company’s Dragon capsule. Currently, SpaceX has an uncrewed Dragon capsule at the International Space Station on a cargo resupply mission for the space agency, delivering supplies supporting more than 200 experiments under way on the orbiting laboratory.

The systems the teams will focus on range from biomedical and life support to software and processes a crew would need to become familiar with in order to command a Dragon mission. SpaceX is working closely with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program on the development of its integrated crew transportation system under a Space Act Agreement, while certification efforts are taking place under a contract.