The spacecraft that transports astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), the ‘Crew Dragon’, will no longer be continued by SpaceX. They will continue to manufacture components for refurbishment however, and they have stated they can make more capsules in the future if required. This machine is SpaceX’s first crewed spacecraft that borrows its design from the cargo capsule that is currently used to resupply the ISS. Their capsules have completed 5 successful missions since 2020, including private crewed mission and it is the only reusable vehicle used by NASA to transport crew to and from the ISS.
SpaceX landed the ‘Commercial Crew Transportation Capability’ contract with NASA for 6 missions back in 2014, and the agency ordered an additional 3 space missions just last month. SpaceX is expected to net around $3.5 billion for all 9 missions. At the moment, the private company has a monopoly on human spaceflight to the ISS as Boeing – who were also awarded a contract – have delayed their Starliner spacecraft due to technical delays. Boeing have yet to even launch a test flight to date.
Elon Musk has stated that SpaceX is targeting May as the launch of its new spacecraft – ‘Starship’ – and will launch an orbital flight test once they have received regulatory approval from the FAA. The company will focus on reusing the 4 Crew Dragon spacecrafts they already have, but it has not been made public how exactly this will happen and what use they will have.
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