SpaceX just announced that will stop producing new Crew Dragon ships once they finish manufacturing their latest project, currently in process, thus marking a fleet that will remain limited (At least for the moment) in four spaceships.
After the official announcement of the news, Elon Musk’s private space firm shared an exclusive statement with Reuters, assuring that would continue to produce components for the spacecraft and that it would maintain its ability to make additional Crew Dragon pods in case something came up.
So, beyond the unexpected moment of the announcement, this news comes with little surprise. And it is that despite the large number of satellites that Mask continues to put into orbit, given the reusable nature of Crew Dragon and its transportation goal, it was always assumed that SpaceX would produce a limited number of spacecraft.although until today it had not been specified at any time how many capsules the company planned to manufacture.
In fact, the end of the manufacture of these ships has occurred in the middle of the current search by SpaceX to achieve stable operation and increase certifications of your Starship reusable heavy rocket next generation. And it is that both the ship and this rocket are key pieces in all SpaceX plans related to the Moon and Mars.
Since its first manned flight in 2020, the Crew Dragon has flown up to five crews into space, including the first civilian passenger to leave the planet, on the last mission late last year. As part of its ongoing commercial crew program, NASA had planned to use the Space X capsule to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. in six separate missionsbut recently said that would use the ship for up to three flights more due to delays associated with Boeing’s Starliner ship.
In addition to the announcement of the cessation of production of Crew Dragon, Elon Musk has advanced that the company hopes to be able to carry out the first orbital test of Starship during the next month of May.
