The Endeavor has landed in the Gulf of Mexico, completing the Demo-2 mission. The US has a new spacecraft in the rotation. Like the shuttle, there are a lot of reusable parts to reduce costs. The shuttle had a 30 year run (1981 to 2011) with 135 launches, which averages a flight every 81 days. Impressive when you consider the 2 year hiatus after each disaster. The average cost per astronaut on the shuttle was $170 million while the Dragon comes in at a comparatively cheap $55 million per astronaut. Triple the astronauts and $5 million in savings for the same funding. Better still, now that we don't need to hitch a ride on the Russian Soyuz for $80 million per astronaut, we deny Putin another source of income.
The Crew-1 mission with 4 astronauts will launch in September and the Crew-2 mission in February. The American space program has returned to manned missions! It's about time.
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