SpaceX will cease producing new Crew Dragon craft after it finishes manufacturing its fourth and ultimate capsule, in response to Reuters. After confirming the information, Elon Musk’s personal area agency instructed the outlet it will proceed to provide elements for the spacecraft and that it will retain its capability to fabricate further Crew Dragon capsules ought to one thing come up.
Given the reusable nature of the Crew Dragon, it was all the time assumed SpaceX would produce a restricted variety of the spacecraft, however earlier than in the present day it wasn’t identified simply what number of capsules the corporate deliberate to make earlier than shifting on to different initiatives.
Since its first crewed flight in 2020, Crew Dragon has flown 5 crews to area, together with the first-ever all-civilian one on the finish of final 12 months. As a part of its ongoing Commercial Crew program, NASA had deliberate to make use of the Space X capsule to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station throughout six separate missions, however just lately mentioned it will use the craft for as many as three extra flights as a consequence of delays related to Boeing’s Starliner craft.
The finish of Crew Dragon manufacturing comes as SpaceX seems to get its next-generation Starship reusable heavy rocket licensed and operational. The spacecraft is a key piece in all of SpaceX’s plans involving the Moon and Mars. After a handful of delays, Elon Musk just lately mentioned the corporate hoped to conduct Starship’s first orbital check in May.