Falcon-9R B1078.29 | Starfall Demo | 23.06.2026

[Orionid]

Starfall Demo
Numer misji   #684   
Data   23 czerwca 2026, 12:53:00 czasu polskiego
Okno startowe   60 minut
Miejsce startu   CCSFS SLC-40 
Miejsce lądowania   ASOG
Rakieta   Falcon 9 Block 5
Booster   1078.29
Ładunek   Starfall
Masa ładunku   ok. 3100 kg
Docelowa orbita   LEO
Klient   SpaceX

Starfall to rozwijany przez SpaceX pojazd orbitalny, który zaprojektowany jest tak, aby autonomicznie dostarczać klienckie eksperymenty i ładunki z powrotem na Ziemię, w szczególności pod kątem produkcji w kosmosie. Jest to cylindryczna kapsuła o wysokości ok. 75 cm, średnicy ok. 3,1 metra i masie ok. 2100 kg. Maksymalna masa ładunku to 1000 kg.

Podczas tego lotu na orbitę trafi pierwszy testowy pojazd Starfall, który ma zademonstrować możliwości ponownego wejścia w atmosferę, wodowania oraz odzyskania kapsuły po locie.

Podejrzewa się, że na szczycie rakiety znajdą się także inne ładunki dodatkowe, jednak żadne szczegóły nie są znane.

Źródła: SpaceX, Next Spaceflight, Gunter's Space Page
https://spacex.com.pl/misja/starfall-demo

On Tuesday, June 23 at 6:53 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the Starfall Demo mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the 29th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER-B, USSF-124, BlueBird 1-5, Nusantara Lima (PSN N5), and 23 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/starfalldemo

SpaceX Project Starfall Demonstration Mission


SpaceX Starfall Demo launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing

[Orionid]

SpaceX @SpaceX 12:44 PM · Jun 23, 2026
Today’s mission includes a demo of a new vehicle that will enable affordable, routine access to the microgravity environment for scientific research and in-space manufacturing. After demonstrating controlled flight, the spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2069370979084603672

[Orionid]

Booster Tracker @BoosterTracker 12:38 PM · Jun 23, 2026
Starfall Demo will mark SpaceX's 655th Falcon 9 launch and 519th Falcon booster landing success on a drone ship.
Learn more: https://boostertracker.com/launch/4729/

https://twitter.com/BoosterTracker/status/2069369377527644606

SpaceX @SpaceX 4:36 PM · Jun 23, 2026
Falcon 9 launches the Starfall Demo mission from Florida

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2069429410965393449

SpaceX @SpaceX 4:01 PM · Jun 23, 2026
Deployment of Starfall confirmed

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2069420637383168301

[Orionid]

152/151/149/144/24)

Eksperymentalny moduł powrotny Starfall oddzielił się od drugiego stopnia RN na maksymalnej wysokości 500 km.
Moduł powrotny Starfall ma kształt niskiego walca o średnicy 3,1 m, wysokości 0,75 m i masie do 3100 kg, z czego 1000 kg przeznaczono na ładunek użyteczny.
W przyszłości spodziewane jest częste rozmieszczanie modułów Starfall za pomocą RN Falcon 9 i SH/SS.
Głównym zastosowaniem będzie prowadzenie eksperymentów naukowych i produkcja komercyjna w warunkach mikrograwitacji.
Rozważane jest również ich wykorzystanie do szybkiego transportu po trajektorii orbitalnej.
https://x.com/Kosmo_Michal/status/2069397526541750461

Udany test pierwszego Starfalla
  23.06. o 10:53:00 z Cape Canaveral wystrzelona została RN Falcon-9R, która wyniosła na orbitę satelitę Starfall demo.
Kapsuła lądująca zwodowała na Pacyfiku.
Pierwszy stopień RN (B1078.29) w T+8' wylądował na ASDS ASOG.
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/n260616.htm#13
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=65286.0

Nie ma informacji oficjalnych o powrocie i odzyskaniu ładunku.

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589 4:32 PM · Jun 23, 2026
Starfall reentry over the Pacific expected at about 1440 UTC (in 10 min)

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/2069428271960244667

With Starfall, SpaceX eyes an edge in global cargo delivery from orbit
Stephen Clark – June 23 2026 07:25

The purpose of Starfall is to support the “transport and delivery of goods through space.”

(...) The Starfall vehicle is cylindrical in shape, with a diameter of 10.2 feet (3.1 meters) and a height of 2.5 feet (0.75 meters). Starfall weighs approximately 4,600 pounds (2.1 metric tons) with a capacity for about 2,200 pounds (1 metric ton) of payload, for a total weight of 6,800 pounds (3.1 metric tons). Designed exclusively for cargo, Starfall is smaller than SpaceX’s human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft, which ferries astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

The first Starfall Demo mission will spend a few hours in low-Earth orbit, but the vehicle could also fly on shorter suborbital trajectories after launching on either Falcon 9 or the much larger Starship rocket. This version of Starfall is not capable of de-orbiting itself but instead relies upon its launch vehicle to guide it back into the atmosphere. After separating from its rocket carrier, the disc-shaped vehicle uses compressed nitrogen gas to orient its heat shield for reentry. (...)
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/with-starfall-spacex-eyes-an-edge-in-global-cargo-delivery-from-orbit/
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/06/starfall-demo/

SpaceX launches reentry capsule demo mission called ‘Starfall’
June 23, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

(...) The company had been tight-lipped about the payload and its mission profile, cutting off its public-facing, post-liftoff timeline after the booster landing event. SpaceX chose not to share views of its upper stage or the Starfall payload itself during its broadcast.

SpaceX also has not disclosed how many spacecraft are onboard this mission. An environmental assessment (EA) published by the Federal Aviation Administration said in May that the company wanted to “perform two Starfall reentries to demonstrate capabilities for future transport and delivery of goods through space,” but it’s not clear if this mission will include more than one Starfall capsule. (...)

Nearly nine minutes after liftoff, B1078 landed on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ positioned out in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 157th landing on this vessel and the 628th booster landing for SpaceX to date. (...)

“For example, Starfall can serve as a proliferated successor to the International Space Station (ISS), taking the ISS’s successful manufacturing experiments and scaling them to a self-sustaining manufacturing economy in space. The Proposed Action is needed to advance novel space capabilities by maturing commercial technology.” (...)

“The heat shield consists of a carbon fiber structure wrapped in thermal protective material and containing two large, compressed nitrogen gas-filled composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) (151 liters each) and several smaller auxiliary compressed gas bottles (9 liters each). The heat shield weighs approximately 700 kg total.”

Following reentry, the top plate separates to reveal the parachute, which is connected to “four reinforced attachment points on the vehicle.” There are three parachutes in total, a drogue, a pilot, and main landing parachutes.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/06/23/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-reentry-capsule-demo-mission-called-starfall/

[Orionid]

Statki ruszyły w kierunku spodziewanego wodowania Starfall.

JohnCn @JConcilus 7:13 PM · Jun 23, 2026
The partner to Shannon n the recovery is the contract vessel Merlin. Both left Long Beach on Saturday and began circling the Starfall splashdown area prior to launch.

https://x.com/JConcilus/status/2069468900987916638

[Orionid]

JohnCn @JConcilus 5:39 PM · Jun 23, 2026
The Starfall mission reentry has already taken place, and Shannon seems to be slowly maneuvering near….something. Mission likely completed one way or the other. 🫡🛸👍👎

https://x.com/JConcilus/status/2069445304915825130

2) Statki wracają już do  Long Beach, CA

JohnCn @JConcilus 10:43 PM · Jun 23, 2026
Both Shannon and Merlin are now on their way back to (presumably) Long Beach, CA with whatever “fell” with Starfall. Averaging between 9 and 10 knots, so should arrive in Long Beach - if that is the destination - on or around June 26. 🛸💫⛴️

https://x.com/JConcilus/status/2069521736123768993

[Orionid]

Kapsuła demonstracyjna SpaceX Starfall została odzyskana.
Statek Shannon dostarczył kapsułę do portu w Long Beach, gdzie została rozładowana i przewieziona ciężarówką w celu przeprowadzenia inspekcji po locie.

Magnus B - Space Coast West @spacecoastwest 5:34 AM · Jun 26, 2026
The SpaceX Starfall Demonstration capsule was successfully recovered off the coast of California following its launch Florida. The recovery vessel Shannon brought the capsule into the Port of Long Beach, where it was unloaded and trucked away to for post-flight inspections.

https://twitter.com/spacecoastwest/status/2070349920612352088

2)

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589·Jun 27
I will be assigning the Starfall Demo launch a 'special' launch  designation of 2026-U03 and the capsule gets a number in my auxiliary  catalog (auxcat) as A11910

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589· Jun 27
Now under the 'old' (1957-ca 2010) rules any launch that stayed up more than 1 rev gets an international designation, so this one, which was up for 2.0 revs, deserves one. But they are getting stingy with recording such short flights. I am not.

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589·Jun 27
If you are counting 'number of orbital launches in 2026', I suggest this one should clearly be included.

https://x.com/planet4589/status/2070979312715538889

SpaceX’s new Starfall program offers validation and competition for reentry startups
by Jeff Foust August 4, 2026

This article first appeared in the August 2026 issue of SpaceNews Magazine with the title “What comes down must first go up.”


The capsule from Varda Space Industries’ W-6 mission after landing the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia in May. Credit: Southern Launch

Demand for microgravity research and manufacturing is brewing — perhaps literally.

When SpaceX launched the first test flight of Starfall, its commercial reentry capsule, on June 23, the company did not disclose what payloads, if any, were in the spacecraft. A day later, though, one company stepped forward: Starbase Brewing, a Texas brewery that produces SpaceX-themed beers such as “Starhopped” and “Occupy März.”

The company said it flew a payload called the Brewery Archive Space Exposure Demonstrator to test how a variety of yeasts responded to exposure to the space environment during the several-hour mission.

Novelty space beer is probably not the killer app for microgravity research, but it does illustrate the breadth of interest in using space to produce items not possible on Earth.

While some of that work can be done on the International Space Station and its commercial successors, a growing number of startups in the United States, Europe and Asia are developing spacecraft to serve that demand. Those spacecraft would host payloads and return the results to Earth in secure containers called reentry capsules.

SpaceX’s entry into the market threatens those companies, in much the same way that SpaceX disrupted the launch industry with Falcon 9 and its rideshare missions. But reentry firms have a far more complex relationship with SpaceX than a typical competitor: SpaceX is also a key provider of launch services at a time when getting to orbit is becoming increasingly difficult.

From pharma to hypersonics


ENOS, the first reentry spacecraft built by Reditus Space, is scheduled to launch later this year on a SpaceX rideshare mission. Credit: Reditus Space.

Companies working in the reentry field have pursued payloads low in mass but high in value, making it easier to close their business cases. That has meant focusing on pharmaceuticals and advanced materials, offering capabilities that can’t be reproduced on Earth.

Varda Space Industries, which has flown six missions to date, has followed the pharma path. Will Bruey, chief executive of the company, cited research done on the ISS several years ago involving the cancer treatment drug Keytruda. “By crystallizing in microgravity, there was a path to changing the formulation from an IV bag to a shot, which is huge for patients,” he said at the ASCEND conference in May.

“The way to think about Varda is we’ve invested this in zero-gravity pharma equipment,” he said, which it in turn offers to companies. Varda announced in May a partnership with United Therapeutics where they will study formulating new drugs in microgravity, starting with treatments for rare pulmonary diseases.

“It shows that space drugs have gone from research for science’s sake to research and development for patients’ sake,” he said of that deal. “They’re certainly not paying us for new science. They’re paying us for drugs into patients.”

Outpost, another company working on reentry vehicles, is interested in optical fiber production in microgravity. Jason Dunn, chief executive of the company, had worked on producing high-quality optical fibers in microgravity with his previous company, Made In Space, but ran into reentry as a time- and cost-intensive bottleneck.

“When we made the first fiber optics on the space station, it took many months to return it,” he said.

“Fiber has always been one of the interesting first products to go after because the market there is able to absorb today’s launch cost,” he said. “There’s also a lot of room to increase the supply of those fibers at lower prices to the market as launch cost comes down.”

Those companies have found interest not just in their microgravity capabilities but also the ability to return.

Varda has flown several payloads for Defense Department organizations testing technology in a hypersonic environment that would otherwise require a dedicated sounding rocket or missile launch.

“The way to describe our defense business is delta-v arbitrage,” Bruey said. “We buy speed for cheap from Falcon 9, and we then sell it into a market that’s used to buying dedicated launches.”

Outpost has received military interest in technology the company has developed to enable pinpoint landings that can be repurposed for use deploying cargo from aircraft and high-altitude balloons.

“They recognized that we have a precision landing system,” said Amir Blachman, president of Outpost. “They asked, ‘Can we buy this separate from the space system?’ So, we’ve packaged that separately now as an early revenue line.”

Other companies have reported similar interest in reentry vehicles including from those interested in doing microgravity research and manufacturing as well those considering defense applications.

“We see interest primarily driven by two sectors,” said Stef Crum, chief executive of Reditus Space.

One, he said, is microgravity research and manufacturing. “That primarily exists on the pharmaceutical side as well as advanced materials, particularly semiconductor substrate crystals.”

The other market is defense, he said, “related to facilitating the [Technology Readiness Level] advancement of hypersonic technologies.”

The Georgia-based startup recently completed its first reentry spacecraft, ENOS, which is scheduled to launch later this year on a SpaceX rideshare mission.

Competing with SpaceX

Most of the companies in the reentry sector are still early-stage. While Varda has flown six missions, others have only conducted test flights of varying degrees of success, or are still developing their spacecraft.

Into this nascent market now comes SpaceX. While there had been industry rumors for a year that SpaceX was developing some kind of reentry capsule, the details of Starfall were closely held until May, when the Federal Aviation Administration published an environmental assessment of SpaceX plans to conduct test flights of Starfall on either Falcon 9 or Starship launches.


An illustration of SpaceX’s Starfall reentry vehicle. Credit: SpaceX

Starfall, the FAA said in its report approving the missions, is intended to support both point-to-point cargo delivery as well as “create a self-sustaining commercial in-space manufacturing market by offering access to microgravity and vacuum, loiter on orbit, and safe return from orbit as a service at scale.”

The Starfall spacecraft is disk-shaped, with a curved lower surface that hosts the heat shield. The spacecraft weighs 2,100 kilograms with a payload capacity of 1,000 kilograms, according to the FAA documents.

With that FAA approval, SpaceX launched its first Starfall spacecraft June 23, spending a few hours in orbit before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the Mexican coast.

SpaceX treated the launch much as it would a classified mission, declining to show onboard video from the upper stage or providing a timeline of events about the mission after the first stage landed.

“SpaceX has developed a new spacecraft called Starfall, which is, at its core, a microgravity lab that researchers and entrepreneurs can leverage to develop their products and innovations,” the company said on its launch webcast. “There is a huge opportunity to benefit life on Earth through microgravity research and in-space manufacturing.”

The arrival of such a product poses an obvious competitive challenge to the startups working on their own reentry vehicles for microgravity manufacturing. SpaceX’s immense resources, including its own launch capacity, would appear to give it a major advantage.

Many of those startups, though, see SpaceX not as a threat but instead a validation of the market. “My first reaction was, ‘Oh, here it is, finally,’” said Kazunari Miyamaru, chief operating officer of ElevationSpace, a Japanese startup developing reentry vehicles, during the Spacetide conference in Tokyo in July.

“SpaceX is huge. It could be a competitor but also a partner,” he said. “It could be evidence for opening up this market.”

Others agreed. “Having an entity the size of SpaceX underwrite the tremendous potential of this is a good thing for everyone in the reentry world,” Crum said.

“We think that it’s actually a big validator for what we’re building to have SpaceX getting into this,” Dunn said. He noted that orbital data center startups saw a surge in interest and funding once SpaceX announced its own plans for a constellation of as many as 1 million such spacecraft. “It’s helping the capital markets realize that this is a valuable place.”

There is some evidence to support that. ElevationSpace closed a $40 million Series B round in June, after Starfall’s plans became public, supporting development of a technology demonstration mission set to launch in mid-2027.

If there is strong demand for reentry services, be it for microgravity manufacturing or defense applications, companies say there will need to be a wide range of capabilities, including vehicles with payload capacities both smaller and larger than Starfall’s 1,000 kilograms.


Outpost’s CarryAll Block 3 vehicle plans to return up to 10 tons from orbit in a volume equivalent to a shipping container. Credit: Outpost

Outpost is betting users will want larger vehicles. Its roadmap includes a vehicle, the CarryAll Block 3, that will be the size of a shipping container and can return 10 tons of payload. The company plans to have that available in the early 2030s.

“We’re intent on building the largest Earth return vehicle,” said Blachman, citing interest from the military for rapid cargo delivery among other uses.

Others are willing to go smaller, offering payloads for more specialized missions. More than one executive compared that diversity of sizes to the aviation market.

“In the airline world, there are several types of aircraft: two-aisle widebody jets and smaller jets,” said Miyamaru. “It depends on customer demand and cadence.”

“Reentry is difficult, which is why there are so few vehicles on the market,” said Dana Baki, chief commercial officer of The Exploration Company, which is developing the Nyx spacecraft designed to transport cargo to and from orbit.

“Now is the time because we don’t want the world to be dependent on one country or one company,” she said at Spacetide.

Access to space

But getting to space in the first place remains a challenge.

At the moment, the emerging reentry sector is largely dependent on one company for access to orbit: SpaceX.

Varda has flown all of its missions on SpaceX Transporter rideshare missions, along with initial demo missions by Atmos Space Cargo and Inversion Space.

Bruey said it was that regular cadence of SpaceX rideshare missions that made Varda possible. “The biggest risk for Varda is that we are relying on those Transporter Falcon 9 missions,” he said. “Varda does not work unless there is high-cadence reliable launch.”

That risk is in danger of being realized. SpaceNews has reported that SpaceX is not accepting reservations for rideshare launches after late 2028 or early 2029, with little capacity remaining on upcoming launches.

That has forced much of the space industry, including those working on reentry vehicles, to look for alternative means to space, from other rideshare missions to dedicated launches on small launch vehicles.


An illustration of the ELS-R reentry spacecraft being developed by ElevationSpace. Credit: ElevationSpace

One advantage most reentry vehicles companies have over those who are developing communications or remote sensing satellites is that they are very flexible on what orbit they can go to, so long as it allows them to land their vehicle in their desired area.

“We just need to go somewhere, and we’re able to sort it out from that point onwards,” said Crum, describing his vehicle as the “ultimate” rideshare payload. “If you can squeeze us in anywhere, it’s perfect.”

Limited launch capacity is holding back the industry, some argue.

Australian company Southern Launch operates the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, a reentry site used by Varda Space Industries for four of its missions. Two other companies, Lux Aeterna and SpaceWorks, have signed agreements to return spacecraft there.

“The issue we have with reentry transportation now is, despite all the excitement about increased access to space over the last 10 years, that access to space is diminishing as these launch companies vertically integrate,” Jeremy Hallett, chairman of the board of Southern Launch, said during a panel at Spacetide.

He said that while Southern Launch expects to support up to 30 reentry missions in the next two years, that number could be much higher. “We would probably have another hundred under contract if our customers could get to space.”

Outpost is counting on the emergence of new vehicles to provide flight opportunities for its vehicles, including SpaceX’s Starship as well as Rocket Lab’s Neutron and Stoke Space’s Nova. “We’re hoping that we see these new launchers come online in the 2030s so that we can see launch prices continue to drop,” said Dunn.

In the near term, Outpost is counting on rideshare missions: It has booked its own Transporter flights for its first demonstration spacecraft with a 100-kilogram payload. Blachman added the company thinks its work for the Air Force Research Lab and other military agencies might open up flight opportunities not otherwise commercially available.

As in many markets, most of the startups in the reentry field likely will not survive.

But some believe there is enough demand to ensure that a single company, like SpaceX, does not dominate the field.

SpaceX’s entry into the field was “inevitable,” said Hallett, but argued there was room for others. “The lesson we need to take from looking at launch and access to space is to be confident in the size of the market for reentry.”

He then turned to Miyamaru, sitting next to him on the Spacetide panel. “You guys stay the course and keep winning because we need more competition.”
https://spacenews.com/spacexs-new-starfall-program-offers-validation-and-competition-for-reentry-startups/