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under a Space Shuttle program, used to make a

total of 135 combined journeys into space and

the International Space Station. Two accidents -

in 1986 and 2003 - resulted in the death of seven

astronauts each. As a result of the second failed

mission in 2003 - which claimed the lives of

Rick Husband, commander; Michael Anderson,

payload commander; David Brown, mission

specialist; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist;

Laurel Clark, mission specialist; William McCool,

pilot; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist - the US

government announced it would wind down

the Shuttle program.

It took another eight years for the remaining

three spaceships - the Endeavour, Atlantis,

and Discovery - to be formally retired, and the

decision was made for NASA to stop building

and operating the ships due to financial

constraints and “wasting” scientific resources.

Essential supplies could instead be fulfilled by

space vehicles operated by private companies,

and NASA could hitch rides from Russian space

ships to travel to the Space Station. It was later

revealed that NASA paid tens of millions for

every trip it took, and as early as March of 2020,

the organization confirmed it would pay

$90m for a seat on the Russian Soyuz crew

launch. Despite seemingly astronomical costs,

outsourcing travel makes sense for NASA, but

the organization naturally wants to operate

from home soil and eliminate its dependence on

foreign space missions.

The latest SpaceX mission is the result of more

than ten years of efforts to find a private player

who can build and operate a commercial “space

transport network”, allowing NASA to focus on

its deep space exploration and move towards

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