In Reuters piece dated Monday, reporter Joey Roulette reported that in an interview with SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell, she told him that they are completing the manufacturing of a fleet of four Crew Dragon capsules, which will fill their known needs.
"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."
Since Crew Dragon is reusable and NASA agrees to flying reused capsules for their missions, it's believed that a fleet of four is enough. Their ultimate goal is to use Starship in place of the Crew Dragon.
Left to right, Crew Dragon, Cargo Dragon CRS-21, and Crew Dragon from the Demo-2 mission. SpaceX photos.
Crew Dragon has flown five manned missions since the first operational flight in May of 2020, when it flew its first pair of NASA astronauts and became the U.S.'s primary ride for getting humans to and from the International Space Station in place of the Russian Soyuz. Since the disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Crew Dragon has jumped from primary ride, to only ride to and from ISS, until Boeing Starliner gets certified to fly, and that doesn't appear close to happening.
After each flight, the capsules undergo refurbishment at SpaceX facilities in Florida, which the company calls "Dragonland."
"There's lifetime cycle issues, where once you start using it the third, fourth, fifth time, you start finding different things," said retired NASA astronaut and former SpaceX executive Garrett Reisman, who now consults for the company on human spaceflight matters.
"SpaceX is really good about identifying these issues quickly and then acting quickly to fix them," Reisman added, pointing to an investigation in 2021 in which SpaceX discovered and fixed within months a toilet leak aboard a Crew Dragon capsule that had flown humans twice.
Shotwell didn't specifically address Cargo Dragon 2 production. Eric Ralph at Teslarati picks up that loose end.
As of today, SpaceX only has two operational Cargo Dragon 2 capsules in its uncrewed fleet – both of which have already flown twice. Following a recent contract extension, SpaceX is scheduled to complete at least 11 more ISS cargo deliveries and recoveries by 2027 and while it’s possible that the company is confident enough to gamble that two Dragon 2 capsules can complete all 15 CRS2 resupply missions, a SpaceX engineer confirmed that at least one more Cargo Dragon is scheduled to debut in 2022. With three Dragons, that would at least give SpaceX the ability to confidently fulfill its CRS2 obligations even if one capsule is damaged or lost.
Stopping and restarting production can be a difficult proposition, but Gwynne Shotwell says they'll take on that burden if needed. They'll need to be in continuous production of some set of parts, I'm sure. Whatever wears out faster or needs replacement more frequently will keep some production line going.
More than anything, the move to halt the production of Crew Dragon capsules seems to mean SpaceX is anxious to get as much of their talent working on Starship as they can. Starship has the potential to revolutionize everything about space travel. I ran a couple of stories based on Casey Handmer's blog post on how Starship is a really big thing that not everybody understands yet. Even so, Eric Ralph blew my mind with this paragraph.
Crew Dragon is currently used to launch four astronauts at a time. A single crewed Starship could have a habitable volume greater than the entire International Space Station and carry 40 astronauts into orbit inside it in a single launch. Cargo Dragon typically delivers about three tons (~6600 lb) of cargo to the ISS. A Cargo Starship could deliver dozens of tons in one go – more cargo space than NASA would know what to do with after decades sent under the tyranny of razor-thin mass margins.
A Starship docking to the ISS would almost be backwards. More cargo capability and more crew on the resupply ship than on the ship being serviced.
With all the businesses that elon has I'm surprised he hasn't ventured into building their own space stations even as way points or repair facilities.
ReplyDeleteThat is my comment as well. I'm sure that they're thinking about it.
DeleteYou KNOW he is.....Probably got the basics already designed.
DeleteWould not be surprised if SpaceX bought out Bigelow Aerospace and started manufacturing their inflatable habitats.
DeleteOf course, SpaceX could just refurbish old Starships into Space Stations.
It is really difficult to explain the leap of capacity from NASA's to Starship. Orders of magnitude just doesn't explain it to many people. Pick-up truck capacity to 18 wheeler is usually what I use to get the point across.
ReplyDeleteWith the upcoming private space stations, I can envision SpaceX launching a Starship with people and cargo, gets a single fill-up and then visits multiple space stations. Like in the past when a ship went from island to island dropping off and picking up people and cargo.
ReplyDeleteA 21st Century version of The Wellerman, eh?
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