SpaceX is set to send its new uncrewed reentry capsule, Starfall, into a demonstration flight early Tuesday morning, with liftoff scheduled for 6:53 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission will use a Falcon 9 rocket and adds a fresh test to the company’s push for faster cargo delivery and commercial manufacturing in space.
The launch window has drawn attention because it is a live rocket launch today, not a distant concept. The 45th Weather Squadron put the odds of good weather at 95 percent, with only a small risk of cumulus cloud interference, making the timing look solid for a morning attempt.
SpaceX will fly the mission on booster B1078, which is heading into its 29th flight after earlier launches of NASA's Crew-6, USSF-124, and SES' O3b mPOWER-B. If the descent goes as planned, the booster should land nearly nine minutes after liftoff on A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean, a touchdown that would mark the drone ship’s 157th landing and SpaceX’s 628th booster landing overall.
The test is about more than one launch. In May, the Federal Aviation Administration published an environmental assessment saying SpaceX wanted to carry out two Starfall reentries to prove out capabilities for moving goods through space. The filing said the capsule could fly to low Earth orbit or follow a suborbital path, and that it could launch on Falcon 9 or on a Starship-Super Heavy flight. It also described Starfall as a cylindrical capsule about 0.75 meters tall, 3.1 meters wide and capable of carrying 1,000 kilograms of payload.
That is where the picture gets murky. SpaceX has not said how long the capsule will stay in orbit, whether any customer payload is onboard, or how many Starfall capsules are on this flight. The company has shown a graphic that appears to allow for up to four capsules, but it has not tied that image to Tuesday’s mission. For now, the next confirmed step is straightforward: if the clock and weather hold, Falcon 9 rises at 6:53 a.m. EDT and B1078 heads for the Atlantic less than nine minutes later.
