SpaceX has announced that it has ended production of its current generation astronaut capsules, the company's flagship Crew Dragons. The end of production isn't a surprise considering SpaceX has built its business on reusable spacecraft. The company will continue to produce replacement components for necessary refurbishments of the Dragons.

SpaceX has built four of its Crew Dragons, and since 2020 the Dragons have been used to transport five crews of private and government astronauts to space. The Dragons have become NASA's primary mode of transportation to and from the International Space Station.

Now, the company will need to adapt its production to keep up with making quick fixes to the Dragons so they can keep on schedule. The end of Dragon production also makes the speedy development of the next generation astronaut capsule, Starship, even more important. So far, that development has been pushed back repeatedly due to issues with the craft's engine and regulatory reviews.

While the end of Dragon production was expected, there was no way to know for sure when that end would come or what the company would do to continue to complete its backlog of missions.

NASA alone has put $3.5 billion towards the development of the Dragon fleet, based on the expectation that the Dragons would be used in six NASA trips to the space station. The agency has since booked another three trips. According to Reuters, at least four private astronaut missions have also been booked with SpaceX.

It appears that the Dragons will continue to be used for SpaceX missions, with the capsules being refurbished following every flight.

"There's lifetime cycle issues, where once you start using it the third, fourth, fifth time, you start finding different things," former SpaceX executive and retired astronaut Garrett Reisman, who is currently serving as a consultant for SpaceX, told reporters. "SpaceX is really good about identifying these issues quickly and then acting quickly to fix them."

However, the goal of SpaceX's founder and chief executive Elon Musk is to create aircraft that can conveniently be reused for multiple space missions, meaning Crew Dragon and SpaceX's Falcon rockets which are also refurbished following every flight were never intended to be in production long-term.

"The goal is to get more and more like aircraft operations, where you can take the vehicle after it lands, fill it back up with gas and oxygen, and go again very rapidly," Reisman said. "Starship, if it achieves its design objectives, would be able to affordably replace everything that Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon can do."