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SpaceX Ending Production of Flagship Crew Capsule (reuters.com) 38

Posted by BeauHD from the all-part-of-the-plan dept.
SpaceX has ended production of new Crew Dragon astronaut capsules, a company executive told Reuters, as Elon Musk's space transportation company heaps resources on its next-generation spaceship program. From the report: Capping the fleet at four Crew Dragons adds more urgency to the development of the astronaut capsule's eventual successor, Starship, SpaceX's moon and Mars rocket. Starship's debut launch has been delayed for months by engine development hurdles and regulatory reviews. It also poses new challenges as the company learns how to maintain a fleet and quickly fix unexpected problems without holding up a busy schedule of astronaut missions.

"We are finishing our final (capsule), but we still are manufacturing components, because we'll be refurbishing," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters, confirming the plan to end Crew Dragon manufacturing. She added that SpaceX would retain the capability to build more capsules if a need arises in the future, but contended that "fleet management is key." Musk's business model is underpinned by reusable spacecraft, so it was inevitable the company would cease production at some point. But the timing was not known, nor was his strategy of using the existing fleet for its full backlog of missions. "Crew Dragon has flown five crews of government and private astronauts to space since 2020, when it flew its first pair of NASA astronauts and became the U.S. space agency's primary ride for getting humans to and from the International Space Station," notes Reuters.
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SpaceX Ending Production of Flagship Crew Capsule More

SpaceX Ending Production of Flagship Crew Capsule

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  • Makes sense - the private missions usually keep one tied up, whilst one is usually docked and the other is for crew with a backup.

  • If we'll be able to eventually find discounted Dragon Capsules in the SpaceX Refurbished and Clearance store. Will they be eligible for ElonCare+?

  • Two for ISS. One for tourists. One "hot" spare ready to go if one is damaged (or god forbid, lost), and one ready spare to act as backup if hot spare is used, so you always have a backup ready while you build the next one to backfill the first spare.

    Running RAID-5 with only one hot spare is bad if you really value your data.

    Although Wikipedia says 5 crew dragon were built. Did one get retired?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Wikipedia says 5 crew dragon were built. Did one get retired?

      If by "retired" you mean "exploded into thousands of tiny pieces during testing", then yes, it did.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      You make it sound like these are all in use at the same time. That i has never been the case nor is it likely to be the case for a long time. 2-3 crewed launches max / year is all SpaceX has to be concerned with, and they are never in space at the same time. Four capsules is plenty for that use case.

    • The commercial crew program is supposed to have two companies supply rides to the ISS: SpaceX with Dragon and Boeing with Starliner. Ideally Boeing would get Starliner sorted out then NASA would have the kind of redundancy you are suggesting. Plus protection against one of the fleets getting grounded for technical / safety issues like what happened with the space shuttle.

      • Starliner?

        Seems to me I read recently that sometime after April Starliner will be redoing its unmanned test flight, followed later (if the past is any guideline, MUCH later.) by its first manned flight test.

        And if that works, they may be ready...

        Personally, I expect that Starship will be flying to the ISS before Starliner. But I don't generally have high expectations for Boeing these days....

  • Since they won't be making these things anymore, this would be a great opportunity to donate one to the National Air and Space Museum! Hell, you could just cobble one together from all the replaced parts and donate that. If the point of SpaceX is to get people interested in space then putting it on display is a way to do that!

  • It's a little surprising NASA hasn't said "These things are proven, they are reliable, they're all we have available to us. We'll directly fund and buy 5 exclusively for NASA to own and use". That's what the old NASA would have done - heavily invest in a single technology and use it for decades.

    NASA must fully be on board SpaceX's new Starship design and plans, and are looking at spaceflight differently (just like SpaceX is). Which is a much more iterative, forward-looking process.

    Also remember that SpaceX'

    • You seem to have somewhat misunderstood the purpose of the commercial crew program. NASA does not WANT to own the vehicle. The decision about how many vehicles are needed should be made by the contractor (SpaceX) based on the demand provided by customers, one of which is NASA. NASA hasn't bought its own rockets for unmanned missions for decades, and it has worked pretty well. They just buy a ride on whatever the appropriate class of rocket is at that time. I was a little worried until I thought about t

  • Biden's administration hasn't been too cozy to Musk, some would say it's been ambivalent. Right now with the Russian situation Crew Dragon is the only way for US astronauts to get to/from the ISS, so this is a message. Sure, 4 CDs may be enough and it's a proven technology, something NASA really needs right now with all the SLS setbacks but I don't think they'd want to rely on that for the next 6 to 8 years alone.

  • They stop building the 2022 model and start building the 2023 model.

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