The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) announced on Tuesday that it had certified SpaceX’s Commercial Crew transport system, allowing it to be regularly used to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). This certification follows the successful crewed SpaceX Crew Dragon test mission to the ISS earlier this year, itself preceded by an uncrewed test flight and by years of design, development and test work. SpaceX was founded and is led by South African-born engineer and entrepreneur Elon Musk. Crew Dragon is just the latest in a long line of spaceflight successes achieved by his company. The certification also followed the completion of a thorough Flight Readiness Review ahead of the first regular flight, known as the ‘Crew-1’ mission, which will carry four astronauts – three American and one Japanese – to the ISS.
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