SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut taxi performs “beautifully” so far in its first operational, long-duration stay on the International Space Station according to Kathy Lueders, NASA’s human spaceflight chief in a Verge interview. The capsule, called Resilience, sent three NASA astronauts and a Japanese astronaut to the station last November.
NASA and SpaceX are closely monitoring Crew Dragon’s health in space as it tallies 98 days docked to the ISS — the longest duration for a human-rated US spacecraft.
Crew-2 is SpaceX’s next mission and is slated for April 20th, reusing the capsule that flew Behnken and Hurley for the DM-2 mission. NASA decided to allow SpaceX to reuse its capsules for astronaut flights last year, setting the stage for a rigorous refurbishment and certification process for SpaceX.
