By mid-2022, the number of SpaceX reusable Dragon spacecraft will increase to eight

News on October 8, Thursday, local time, NASA Officials and SpaceX representatives held a briefing before the third commercial astronaut launch mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft (Crew-3), and revealed the company’s plans to build and use Details of the reusable Dragon spacecraft to support NASA missions.

Picture 1: To In the middle of 2022, the number of SpaceX’s reusable Dragon spacecraft will increase to eight

At the briefing, SpaceX Dragon Spaceship Mission Management Director Sarah Walker (Sarah Walker) revealed that the company will use the new Crew Dragon spacecraft (C210) to perform the Crew-3 mission, which will be sent into space by the reused Falcon 9 rocket booster B1067.

B1067 made its debut on June 3, 2021, when it sent SpaceX’s second upgraded Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. The Crew-3 mission will be the second time NASA has used recovered commercial rockets to launch astronauts.

In April 2021, SpaceX used the recovered Falcon 9 rocket booster (B1062) to launch NASA astronauts for the first time to execute the so-called Crew Dragon The spacecraft’s second commercial astronaut launch mission (Crew-2). The Crew-2 manned dragon spacecraft has also entered orbit to support SpaceX’s first manned test flight in May 2020.

Five months later, SpaceX successfully completed the world’s first purely commercial space manned mission Inspiration4. At that time, the company used the recovered booster to launch the reused manned dragon spacecraft. With SpaceX’s first use of the two-recovered Falcon 9 rocket for manned missions, the reusability of the Crew Dragon spacecraft has been further improved.

Picture 2: In January 2021, the manned dragon spacecraft C207 flew in orbit for the first time

The C210 executing Crew-3 will become SpaceX’s third Crew Dragon spacecraft to be put into operation. Currently, the company is using C206 (Endeavour) and C207 (Toughness) for manned missions. Walker also confirmed that the Crew-4, which was recently scheduled to be launched in April 2022, will also use the newly built Crew Dragon spacecraft. By the middle of 2022, the company’s manned dragon spacecraft will increase to four.

These four spacecraft will all be certified by NASA for at least five missions, which should be able to meet NASA’s recent demand for the manned dragon spacecraft. However, if it cannot obtain long-term certification for more than five flights, or if the company continues to allow professional astronauts and ordinary people to fly on the Crew Dragon spacecraft before 2030, then it may need more spacecraft.

But in theory, if Boeing’s interplanetary spacecraft is finally put into use in 2023, and NASA continues to operate the International Space Station until 2030 or even more Long time, then by 2023, SpaceX will only need to perform a manned launch mission for NASA once a year.

Picture 3: In April 2021, the Crew Dragon spacecraft C206 arrived at the International Space Station for the second time

In terms of freight, Walker revealed that SpaceX will make its debut on the other two newly-built Dragon Cargo ships in December 2021 and May 2022 in its CRS-24 and CRS-25 missions, making the company’s The number of cargo spacecraft increased to four. As long as the International Space Station continues to operate, SpaceX is likely to continue to deliver supplies for it. Between now and 2030, the company needs to launch about 12 to 18 more Cargo Dragon spacecraft.

However, when the SpaceX interstellar spacecraft is put into use and is certified for daily personnel and cargo missions by NASA, the interstellar spacecraft may soon replace the Dragon spacecraft. But this milestone may take several years to achieve, which means that the SpaceX Dragon series spacecraft will need to continue to serve as the pillar for at least the next 5 to 10 years.

From this point of view, the number of SpaceX’s reusable Dragon spacecraft (including manned and cargo) is expected to double in the next 8 months , Increased from four to eight.