Keychain "Dragon SpaceX"

Dragon is intended to fulfill a set of requirements that will make the capsule useful to both commercial and government customers. SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace are working together to support round-trip transport of commercial passengers to low Earth orbit (LEO) destinations, using the full capacity of seven passengers. NASA flights to the ISS will only have four astronauts, with the added payload mass and volume used to carry pressurized cargo.

On 16 September 2014, NASA announced that SpaceX and Boeing had been selected to provide crew transportation to the ISS. SpaceX will receive $2.6 billion under this contract.[42] Dragon was the least expensive proposal, but NASA's William H. Gerstenmaier considered the CST-100 proposal the stronger of the two.

In a departure from the prior NASA practice, where construction contracts with commercial firms led to direct NASA operation of the spacecraft, NASA is purchasing space transport services from SpaceX, including construction, launch, and operation of the Dragon 2.

In August 2018, NASA and SpaceX agreed on the loading procedures for propellants, vehicle fluids and crew. High-pressure helium will be loaded first, followed by the passengers approximately two hours prior to scheduled launch; the ground crew will then depart the launch pad and move to a safe distance. The launch escape system will be activated approximately 40 minutes prior to launch, with propellant loading commencing several minutes later.[44] The first automated test mission launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 2 March 2019.

In early 2019, crewed flights were expected to begin no earlier than July 2019. They were later planned to begin no earlier than on 30 May 2020. The first crewed flight launched on 30 May 2020 with the launch of the Demo-2 mission.