The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) certified SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, the Resilience, and its Falcon 9 rocket to carry astronauts into space.

This is the first NASA approval of a U.S. spacecraft developed by a private company. The certification which also served as a “Flight Readiness Review” for the mission known as “Crew-1,” is a historic step in the already powerful partnership between the federal agency and Elon Musk’s, SpaceX.

The Crew Dragon capsule powered by the Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for a liftoff on Saturday, November 14.

According to NASA officials, four astronauts will be riding in the capsule. They include NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker as well as Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. 

They will be headed out to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 6-month mission that involves conducting research, experiments, and performing maintenance tasks. 

The historic launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida can be live-streamed from NASA Live.

A historic partnership in Space

In a statement, Musk expressed his gratitude to NASA for its "continued support of SpaceX and partnership in achieving this goal.” 

“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, and ultimately help humanity become multi-planetary," added Musk who serves as CEO and Chief Engineer of SpaceX.

On the other hand, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “This certification milestone is an incredible achievement from NASA and SpaceX that highlights the progress we can make working together with the commercial industry.” 

NASA commercial spaceflight director Phil McAlister commented, “We are truly at the beginning of a new era of human spaceflight.”

Innovation has escalated as costs are being reduced

Over the past 6 years, NASA has been funding SpaceX development of the Crew Dragon under its Commercial Crew program.

Since 2011 when the original space shuttle retired, the U.S. paid Russia upwards of $80 million per astronaut to have them transported to the International Space Station.

The certification of SpaceX will end the United States' dependence on Russia and it wil reduce the cost to make the flight to about $55 million per astronaut. Working with US private companies has saved NASA between $20 billion and $30 billion in development costs.

Boeing is also working on completing its Starliner capsule under the Commercial Crew program. The company is hoping to be the second private US contractor to get a NASA certification.

Crew-1 comes about five months after the completion of the Demo-2 test flight, carrying two NASA astronauts on SpaceX’s first crewed mission. 

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