Enlarge / A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with the Crew-Eight mission, sending three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut on a six-month expedition on the Worldwide Area Station. (credit score: Picture by Gregg Newton/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
SpaceX’s oldest Crew Dragon spacecraft launched Sunday night time on its fifth mission to the Worldwide Area Station, and engineers are crunching information to see if the fleet of Dragons can safely fly as many as 15 occasions.
It has been 5 years since SpaceX launched the primary Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted check flight to the house station, and practically 4 years since SpaceX’s first astronaut mission took off in Might 2020. Since then, SpaceX has put its clan of Dragons to make use of ferrying astronauts and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit.
Now, it is already time to speak about extending the lifetime of the Dragon spaceships. SpaceX and NASA, which shared the price of creating the Crew Dragon, initially licensed every capsule for 5 flights. Crew Dragon Endeavour, the primary within the Dragon fleet to hold astronauts, is now flying for the fifth time.
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