SpaceX notified about plans to discontinue Crew Dragon flights after 2030

SpaceX has informed NASA and private partners about plans to discontinue flights of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket after 2030. The decision was reported by journalist Eric Berger, citing participants in the space industry. According to him, SpaceX has already warned both NASA and commercial customers - Axiom Space, Voyager Space, and Vast Space - about the cessation of flights. These companies had planned to use the spacecraft for flights to low Earth orbit and to private stations.

As Berger notes, the initial contract with SpaceX provided for the implementation of six missions, but the company has already carried out dozens of flights, and there are no legal mechanisms to force it to continue the program. At the same time, the company is also not interested in using the Starship system to deliver people to low Earth orbit in the near future due to NASA's strict certification requirements, including the need for an emergency rescue system.

Meanwhile, the launch of the next Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for October 1, 2026. The crew of the Dragon spacecraft includes Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk, and Sergey Tetyartnikov.