Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
For nearly a decade, the situation was the exact opposite. After the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, the United States had no human-rated spacecraft of its own. Every American astronaut heading to the ISS had to fly on Soyuz. NASA paid Roscosmos anywhere from 70 to 90 million dollars per seat, depending on the year and contract. Between 2011 and 2020, that added up to more than 4 billion dollars transferred from the U.S. to Russia just to keep crews rotating on the station.
At the time, Roscosmos held all the leverage. Soyuz launches were routine, politically valuable, and extremely profitable. NASA had no alternative.
Today, that leverage is gone.
Crew Dragon now launches from Florida using two specific launchpads: Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center and Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Both pads are located about 12 kilometers apart and are fully certified for human spaceflight. Launch Complex 39A is the same pad used for Apollo missions and Space Shuttle flights, while SLC-40 was rebuilt by SpaceX after a Falcon 9 explosion in 2016 and later upgraded for crewed missions. Because Crew Dragon is certified to fly from both pads, SpaceX can continue crew launches even if one pad is shut down for inspections or repairs. This matters because crew rotations to the ISS follow a fixed six-month schedule. Missing a launch window can delay crew handovers by weeks or even months.
For nearly a decade, the situation was the exact opposite. After the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, the United States had no human-rated spacecraft of its own. Every American astronaut heading to the ISS had to fly on Soyuz. NASA paid Roscosmos anywhere from 70 to 90 million dollars per seat, depending on the year and contract. Between 2011 and 2020, that added up to more than 4 billion dollars transferred from the U.S. to Russia just to keep crews rotating on the station.
At the time, Roscosmos held all the leverage. Soyuz launches were routine, politically valuable, and extremely profitable. NASA had no alternative.
Today, that leverage is gone.
Crew Dragon now launches from Florida using two specific launchpads: Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center and Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Both pads are located about 12 kilometers apart and are fully certified for human spaceflight. Launch Complex 39A is the same pad used for Apollo missions and Space Shuttle flights, while SLC-40 was rebuilt by SpaceX after a Falcon 9 explosion in 2016 and later upgraded for crewed missions. Because Crew Dragon is certified to fly from both pads, SpaceX can continue crew launches even if one pad is shut down for inspections or repairs. This matters because crew rotations to the ISS follow a fixed six-month schedule. Missing a launch window can delay crew handovers by weeks or even months.
