Particle.news
Get it on Google Play
Download on the App Store
16 ARTICLES
·
last wk.

SpaceX Launches First Starfall Demonstration Capsule

The June 23 demo sent a disk-shaped test vehicle into low Earth orbit to exercise reentry procedures followed by ocean recovery for a planned mass-produced cargo-return service.

Image
Katalyst Space’s LINK spacecraft sits inside the payload fairing of the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia ahead of its launch to boost the orbit of NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Credit: NASA/Ron Beard
Starfall will be carried into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbs on a bright exhaust plume against a clear blue sky

Overview

  • SpaceX launched the first Starfall demo on Tuesday, June 23, sending a 3.1‑meter, ~2,100‑kg disk-shaped capsule to low Earth orbit while the Falcon 9 booster successfully landed on a droneship in the Atlantic.
  • Federal Aviation Administration filings show the program is authorized for up to two reentry demonstrations with planned splashdowns about 700 nautical miles off the U.S. west coast and set recovery zones and procedures.
  • Starfall uses a two-piece design: a roughly 1,400‑kg aluminum top plate that houses payloads and a roughly 700‑kg carbon‑fiber heat shield that contains compressed‑gas tanks and jettisons to allow parachute recovery.
  • The capsule has no main propulsion and depends on the launch vehicle to place it on a reentry path; compressed inert gas provides attitude control and a drogue, pilot, and main parachute sequence is planned for splashdown.
  • If the demonstrations validate recovery and repeatability, SpaceX aims to scale Starfall into a mass-produced cargo‑return service to support in‑space manufacturing and potential rapid point‑to‑point military logistics, though customer manifests and operational cadence remain unconfirmed.