Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has produced new astronaut capsules, called Crew Dragon.
There are now 4 capsules in the SpaceX fleet, and the company aims to transport astronauts through them to the International Space Station, and then return them to Earth.
This capsule is the first to be operated and built specifically to transport humans to outer orbit.
It appeared for the first time in 2020, and transported humans to space 5 times, including an entire commercial crew orbiting the Earth.
SpaceX executives said the shift is to move resources into a next-generation spaceship program, known as Starship, which will include a lunar lander.
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The spacecraft’s first launch has been delayed by several months due to engine development hurdles and regulatory reviews, but the first orbital flight is scheduled for this year.
According to the Daily Mail, the new “Crow Dragon” capsule is a rocket and spacecraft that Elon Musk says will be used to make humanity able to move between planets, allowing the establishment of a colony on Mars.
The creation of this capsule ended nearly ten years of NASA’s dependence on Russia to transport its crew to the extraterrestrial space station, as the Soyuz spacecraft was used, which was launched from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan.