SpaceX Will End Production Of New Crew Dragon Capsules

screenrant.com:

SpaceX's Crew Dragon astronaut capsule production is ending. Currently, the company has four Crew Dragon capsules — Endurance, Resilience, Endeavour and Freedom. The last one, Freedom, was recently given its name a week ago, and it is set to take flight in April at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, located in Florida. Furthermore, NASA Astronaut Kjell Lindgren, who will command the upcoming Crew Dragon flight, celebrated the name reveal on Twitter.

SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon as a part of the Commercial Crew Program set up by NASA. Meanwhile, the government space agency also picked Boeing to build its spacecraft under the same program. SpaceX received $3.5 billion to develop and maintain the Crew Dragon spacecraft for six flights to the International Space Station. However, the space agency increased the number of flights to compensate for the delays from Boeing's Starliner capsule. Each Crew Dragon flight costs $225 million, and SpaceX has successfully transported four crews of astronauts to the ISS, but the space agency wishes to bring this cost further down. 

Related: Elon Musk Wants To Save ISS Following Russian Threats

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters, "We are finishing our final (capsule), but we still are manufacturing components, because we'll be refurbishing." One of the reasons behind the Crew Dragon production halt is to preserve efficiency. Maintaining a fleet of different spacecraft takes up resources and can deter SpaceX from quickly responding to unexpected problems without affecting a jam-packed flight schedule. The persistence of such problems can also potentially risk the safety of astronauts. In addition, Elon Musk's space transportation company will likely turn its focus to its next-gen