Yes, it was new. It was the first time that NASA didn't design the vehicle and have a contractor build it. NASA set the specs on functions, and Space-X designed it, on their own, without NASA micro-management, to meet those specs.
And it was a fixed, firm price contract with progress payments, not cost plus.
/johnny
They did nothing new. NASA did that in the 1960s. Private Industry just copied similar designs done in the past. Russians do what private industry has done. Private industry didn’t think anything up. You missed that point.
Coming up with a new way to get into space and returning would be new.