(SpaceX)
SpaceX has stopped production of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
For future missions, the company will reuse the four ships already built up to the point, until they are replaced by Starship.
The Crew Dragon is a manned version of the Dragon 2 spacecraft that, along with the Cargo Dragon, delivers cargo to the ISS.
Dragon 2 was designed as a partially reusable spacecraft, consisting of a parachute-returned capsule with a crew or cargo and a service module burning up in the atmosphere.
After landing, the engineers change some components, but in general the capsule is designed to be reused.
Similarly, the company is reusing the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, one of which recently took off and landed 12 times.
In total, the company has built seven Dragon 2 ships flying into orbit, and one more, which is due to send space tourists to the ISS in April.
Of these, the company stopped using only two devices. One of them was used on Dragon 2's first flight into orbit and then exploded during ground testing.
The second participated in the test of the in-flight crew rescue system, landed successfully and survived, but was written off.
Having built the fourth Crew Dragon manned capsule, the company announced that it would stop producing them and would fly missions on already assembled ships.
At the same time, it will continue to produce separate components for servicing capsules and disposable service modules.
In addition, if necessary, the company can resume production.
However, for now SpaceX plans to focus on the development of Starship, a fully reusable super-heavy rocket, the second stage of which will simultaneously serve as a spacecraft.
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