However, over the past two years, SpaceX has slowly overcome its early challenges. The company is now the only contractor to successfully ferry astronauts. In May, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully carried two NASA astronauts to the ISS on a demonstration mission, called Demo-2. That trip was the first time astronauts had traveled into orbit on a private spacecraft. Elon Musk’s rocket company also launched an empty Crew Dragon capsule to the space station on a fully robotic test flight in March 2019.
Now, nine years after the last space shuttle flew, America finally seems to have a reliable ride into orbit again. And as important as this milestone was for NASA, it also opens up the solar system for SpaceX.
NASA has formally certified the company to fly astronauts into orbit, which means SpaceX can begin launching space tourists, too.
“This is the culmination of years of work and effort from a lot of people and a lot of time,” Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX, said at a media event this week. “We have built what I think is one of the safest launch vehicles and spacecraft ever.”
And this week, Axiom Space, another private spaceflight company, announced that it had booked the first private astronaut trip on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The Ax-1 mission will carry four private citizens to the ISS in late 2021. Additionally, Richard Branson's spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic, aims to send the founder to suborbital space early next year, officially kicking off their space tourism venture.
SpaceX will also now start flying crewed trips to the ISS for NASA every six months. Next year, one of those missions could even include a Russian cosmonaut, the space agency announced on Friday.