Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) is a multiphase, space technology development program that is funded by the U.S. government and administered by NASA. The program is intended to stimulate development of privately operated crew vehicles to be launched into low Earth orbit. The program is run by NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO). William Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, stated in 2012 it was likely only one competitor would be chosen to deliver crew to the International Space Station (ISS); the chosen spacecraft is expected to begin doing so around 2017.