Built on the same platform as Dragon 2 (cargo) , Crew Dragon was originally built to fulfill the NASA contract for crew transfer services to and from the International Space Station, but has been used additionally for both space tourism and private missions to the International Space Station for Axiom. Originally intended for propulsive landing (for which captive testing occurred), NASA concerns ultimately led to Crew Dragon / Dragon 2 having a re-entry profile that involved splashdown instead. While nominally re-usable, it has to be substantially refurbished between uses.
Crew Dragon is one of only a few crew-rated spacecraft in the world that are actually in service, alongside Soyuz (Russian Federation) and Shenzhou (People's Republic of China).
