Crew Dragon on top of Falcon 9 at LC-39A, March 12, 2025 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Some days you’re the bug, other days you’re the windshield.
The scheduled Wednesday launch of the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station was scrubbed last night with a little more than forty six minutes left on the countdown clock. The delay stemmed from a malfunction in the hydraulic system of a ground support clamp arm attached to the Falcon 9 rocket, located at SpaceX’s Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Crew Safe And Still In Florida
The crew—comprising NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov—departed the Dragon spacecraft following the cancellation and will remain in Florida for the time being awaiting a new launch window.
NASA Astronauts Anne McClain (left) and Nichole Ayers (right) departing the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) on their way to LC-39A and Falcon 9 on March 12, 2025 Photo: Charles Boyer, Talk of Titusville
The earliest rescheduled launch window is now set for no sooner than Friday, March 14th at 7:06 PM ET in an instantaneous window. That date is dependant on remediations of the hydraulic issue at the launch pad. At this time, the Falcon 9 vehicle itself and the Crew Dragon the astronauts will fly aboard is in good condition.
Weather
Weatherwise, the U.S. Space Force 45th Weather Squadron has not released a new Launch Mission Execution forecast for tomorrow. General forecasts for the Cape are showing a minimal chance of rain with easterly winds between 5-10 MPH with gusts not being a great deal higher than that. Keep in mind that the general forecasts do not consider launch criteria and cover much larger area than the ascent corridor at and above LC-39A, so the 45th may have a different outlook on the probability of acceptable conditions.
Another consideration will be winds and seas along the ascent corridor. That must be within acceptable conditions. Reliable forecasts for winds at the altitudes Falcon 9 will be at are not available at this time. Bottom line: wait for the 45th Weather Squadron’s forecast to draw any conclusions about weather conditions for the launch.
Should the Crew-10 mission proceed on March 14, the preceding Crew-9 team—consisting of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—would undock from the space station NET Tuesday, March 18. That timeline remains contingent on suitable weather conditions at the designated splashdown zones off Florida’s coast and may change over the next few days.
Falcon 9 and Crew 10 at LC-39A on March 12, 2025 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket on its launch pad in 2023
Eric Schmidt, renowned for his tenure as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, is now the Chief Executive Officer of Relativity Space. Schmidt has also infused capital into the cash-starved company, giving it life and the means to finish its Terran-R medium lift rocket. That rocket is planned to fly from Cape Canaveral as early as next year.
By all appearances to most anyone outside of SpaceX, the flight of Starlink 12-20 last week was nominal, and afterwards, the landing of Booster B1086 was normal. The booster completed that landing successfully when it touched down aboard ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’ about 8.3 minutes after launching. Unfortunately during its ascent, a lot was going wrong inside the vehicle, leading to its loss shortly after it landed when a fire started 45 seconds after touchdown.
In early reports, SpaceX said the following:
“The first stage booster returned to Earth and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean ~250 nautical miles off the coast of Florida. Following the successful landing, an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over. While disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use the data to make Falcon even more reliable on ascent and landing.”
A Deeper Explanation
Bill Gerstenmaier, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX, outlined the events which led to the loss late last week in the Crew 10 pre-flight teleconference hosted by NASA. “Last week on Starlink G12-20, after a successful landing, an off-nominal fire broke out and flared into the rocket. It damaged one of the landing legs, which resulted in the rocket tipping over,” he began.
“We got a chance to see how the hardware really performs in an extremely off-nominal environment, and that’s a pretty rare instance to get a chance to see that,” Gerstenmaier continued. “The engine [on fire] was fully contained in the compartment like it was designed to be. The fire was pretty extensive, did a lot of damage, but the damage is what we’ve expected, what is accounted for in all our procedures and processes.”
Failure Was During Ascent, But Mission Was Safe To Continue
Gerstenmaier continued, saying, “It turns out there was a fuel leak during ascent. It showed up about 85 seconds into ascent. It essentially sprayed some rocket propellant, essentially kerosene, onto a hot component of the engine. It vaporized and created a flammable environment. But on the way up, there was no oxygen to interact with. With the fuel, so there was no problem at all during ascent. And it was perfectly fine. The mission was accomplished.”
Starlink 12-20 at 85 seconds into flight. Via SpaceX livestream
In the mission profile, at 85 seconds into the ascent Starlink 12-20 and Booster 1086 was roughly 17.5 kilometers high, and about 38.8 km downrange. It had a little more than another minute of powered flight left prior to MECO, or Main Engine Cutoff, the point at which the first stage has concluded its boosting phase and the staging and landing events begin.
Starlink 12-20 Would Have Been Successful Even If The Fire Started Earlier
“Even if we would have had a problem [a fire] during ascent, this shows that the fire and the damage would be contained to just a single engine out, which still allows us to accomplish the entire mission,” Gerstenmaier stated, underscoring the booster’s resilience despite the anomaly.
Detailing the sequence of events, he explained that while the fire did not compromise the mission itself, it reignited after landing due to a combination of residual oxygen, fuel, and a hot engine component.
“Then coming back after we landed, about 45 seconds after we landed, enough oxygen came into the compartment where it interacted with the fuel and a hot portion of the engine, which was known to be hot. And then we had a fire, and subsequently, it blew out the barrel panel on the side of the rocket just like it was designed to. The fire was all contained,” he elaborated.
B1086 post-landing but pre-fire
Gerstenmaier emphasized that SpaceX is rigorously investigating the incident to pinpoint the exact cause of the fuel leak that led to the post-landing fire.
“So we developed a risk. We put all the rationale through that. We’re double-checking. We’re trying to see if we can understand what occurred that actually caused the fuel leak. It’s pretty difficult to determine what was cause and what was effect from the fire,” he said.
He acknowledged the complexity of the forensic analysis due to the extent of the fire damage.
“The fire was pretty extensive. It melted a lot of aluminum components. So it’s difficult to see. But we’re going through the forensics,” Gerstenmaier noted.
Despite the setback, SpaceX successfully recovered most of the burned booster, which remained aboard the autonomous spaceport drone ship ASDS Just Read The Instructions. The ship and booster remains returned to Port Canaveral over the weekend, allowing teams to conduct further inspections.
“It’s available at the Cape. We’ll continue to keep looking [for the root cause.] We’ll continue to keep briefing NASA [on our findings.] And we’ll be ready as we move forward. So, again, I think we’re in good shape with that. We have a good understanding, and we’ll improve our knowledge, and ultimately, we’ll be safer because of what occurred on this flight,” Gerstenmaier concluded.
Intuitive Machines Nova-C class IM-2 lunar lander “Athena” on its side on the lunar surface. Photo: Intuitive Machines.
Yesterday, Intuitive Machines Nova-C class IM-2 lunar lander “Athena” touched down on the lunar surface safely, but in a position feared to be suboptimal.
Yesterday, Intuitive’s CEO Steve Altemus said in his remarks at a Post-Landing press conference, “We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude on the surface of the moon.” In other words, not fully upright. Intuitive added that they were working to gather additional data last night and that they would provide an update when the company’s engineers reached solid conclusions.
That update came this morning with Intuitive Machines saying:
Images downlinked from Athena on the lunar surface confirmed that Athena was on her side. After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander’s batteries depleted.
With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge. The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.
This southern pole region is lit by harsh sun angles and limited direct communication with the Earth. This area has been avoided due to its rugged terrain and Intuitive Machines believes the insights and achievements from IM-2 will open this region for further space exploration.
At this time, it is unclear which, if any, of the instruments other than the PRIME-1 suite the lander carried were able to provide data before the mission’s conclusion. Prime-1, or the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) was one of the primary activities planned the the IM-2 mission.
Other Experiments Aboard IM-2
Micro-Nova Hopper “Grace”: A drone equipped with a neutron spectrometer, Grace is designed to explore permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) within the nearby Marston crater. Its mission is to provide the first surface measurements of hydrogen in these PSRs, an essential indicator of water presence on the moon.
Lunar Outpost’s MAPP Rover: This commercial rover will autonomously map the lunar surface, capture stereo images, and collect thermal data. It is equipped to inspect samples of lunar regolith, contributing to the assessment of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) potential.
Nokia’s Lunar Cellular Network: In collaboration with Nokia, the mission will deploy the first cellular network on the Moon, utilizing LTE technology to facilitate efficient data transmission between lunar assets and Earth.
Given that they were not mentioned in the Intuitive Machines update, it is reasonable to assume that those experiments could not be deployed.
This is the second attempt Intuitive has made to land on the moon with their Nova-C lander, with both attempts resulting in successful soft touchdowns but with the lander on its side and unable to complete its experiments fully.
IM-2 Improvements Over IM-1
Dr. Tim Crain of Intuitive Machines in yesterday’s press conference after the IM-2 lunar landing. Photo: NASA livestream
In his remarks at yesterday’s joint press conference with NASA, Intuitive Machines’ Chief Growth Officer Dr. Tim Crain pointed out several major improvements to the company’s Nova-C spacecraft:
“They’ve always pointed the old offensive lineman about heavy lifting That’s kind of the way it works sometimes,” Tim Crain began. Crain is a former University of Texas Longhorn football player.
“I’d like to paint a little bit of a picture going back to Valentine’s day of last year when we launched Odysseus. Every day that we went in on that mission, it seemed like that vehicle was just trying to escape our grasp and we had to put out brush fires and understand how the systems we’d built were really working in space. And so every day was a challenge on that mission.”
“And then finally,” Dr. Crain continued, “We ended up on the surface and successfully communicating and operated for many, many days. After the mission, the team got together and we made a list of all the things we had. [We asked outselves] what do we need to change for the next mission? And we had 65 items. 10 were critical, the others were, well, if we can get these in for IM- 2, we will. But if not, they can wait on IM- 3 and it’s probably enough. We got all 65 of those in on this mission. “
“We took a couple of days off after the previous mission,” he said. “Then we got together, we do what we call a hot wash. And the first hot wash I did was on Project Morpheus when I was at NASA when we lost a And then we did a hot wash of all the things we wanted to And eight months later, we’re up and flying better than ever,” Crain said.
“So that was the experience kind of leading into spring of last year, April timeframe. These are all of the improvements that we wanna make. Our orbit determination needed improvement. We had people flying around the world to improve our ground sites to give us better measurements,” Dr. Crain continued.
“We partnered with NASA to have validation and cross- check data to make sure that our systems would work the way they’re supposed to. We had issues that we learned on the way we controlled our engines that we wanted to. Our thermodynamic venting system, could we make that better? Could we make it work the way we want it to work? We ran into problems on the first mission with helium management. Helium is very important to our system for pressurizing our cryogenic methane system, also for RCS.”
“And then we had measurements we wanted to make of craters that we weren’t able to get in place on the first mission. So we had a lot of new technology that we brought forward in this mission. And I’ll be honest, I had a little bit of trepidation when we launched about what some of these new things and improvements might do in the system. It was a night and day operational difference.”
“On day one, we gathered some data about our propulsion system. And then on day two, we fired the better than we’d ever fired it before. The comm systems on our Omni antennas, which aren’t even designed to bring high gain data home, worked better than our high gain antenna had worked on the first mission.”
“We get to the moon, our orbit determination was so precise that we were within a couple ofkilometers in our 100 kilometer orbit. And we didn’t even have to do a lunar correction maneuver that we had put in place, because we had to do one in an emergency on the first mission.”
IM-2 in lunar orbit. Courtesy Intuitive Machines
“So it really had moved from come in on the day of operations and save the vehicle to grab your lunch pail, go in, do spacecraft operations, as this magnificent machine called Athena moved her way to the all the way into lunar orbit. And then really the last couple of days in lunar orbit, we were expecting a fully successful landing. We did see some noise on our landing sensors towards the end, our crater recognition system. It’s machine learning on board.”
“How do you tell a computer to look for the craters but identify which craters those are on the moon. [It] worked almost an order of magnitude better than we’d anticipated. So we had every reason to believe that we were gonna come down and land with all systems the way we wanted to.”
“We’re trying to evaluate exactly what happened that very last bit. But I would tell you the improvement from the last mission to the next mission, really in less than a when you consider the fact that you have to be at the Cape early, you have to be done with testing before that.”
“And I’m incredibly proud of the team. I’m incredibly proud of how well this vehicle performed. And I will tell you, the future is bright for intuitive machines to land lots and lots of cargo on the moon.”
Conclusions
Dr. Crain and all of Intutive should be proud of his team and the job that they all did in preparing for and operating this mission. While it may seem on the surface that it was a failure, in fact, it was far from it. Many lessons were learned from IM-1, applied to IM-2 and major improvements were seen. It was also the second flight of a spacecraft fueled with cryogenic propellants, both by Intuitive and both successful. The landing, up to the very last, went well.
Now, Intuitive will assess what happened, devise and test improvements and will apply them to IM-3. The date for that mission is unknown at this time.
About NASA CLPS
Both of the Intuitive Machines missions were part of the NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which is aimed at accelerating lunar exploration by partnering with private companies to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon. Through CLPS, NASA has awarded contracts to multiple U.S. commercial space firms to develop and operate robotic landers designed to study lunar geology, search for water ice, and test new technologies that could support future crewed missions under the Artemis program. This approach leverages the agility and cost-effectiveness of the commercial sector while advancing NASA’s long-term goals of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
A harsh mistress, the Moon. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
CLPS is inherently a high-risk endeavor, as NASA is relying on unproven commercial landers to execute complex lunar landings—an area historically dominated by government space agencies with decades of experience. Many of the selected providers are developing their landers for the first time, making each mission an experimental test with no guarantee of success.
While NASA accepts this risk as part of its strategy to foster innovation, the program’s success is far from certain, and early missions may encounter setbacks before commercial lunar deliveries become routine.
Intuitive Machines IM-2 lunar lander in a publicity shot. Photo: Intuitive Machines
Starship Flight 8 lifts off at 6:30 PM EST March 6, 2025 Photo: Richard Gallagher / FMN
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly paused flights to multiple Florida airports on Thursday night following an in-flight failure of SpaceX’s Starship during the Flight 8 test launch yesterday.
Airports affected by the temporary flight halt included Miami International Airport—an American Airlines hub—as well as those serving Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando. The pause was implemented as part of a response to the potential of falling debris from the failed launch.
In a statement, the FAA confirmed that it required SpaceX to conduct a “mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle during launch operations on March 6.” The regulatory agency also stated that it “activated a Debris Response Area and briefly slowed aircraft outside the affected zone or held them at their departure points,” but that normal air traffic operations had resumed.
SpaceX’s March 6th statement on Starship Flight 8’s failure via SpaceX.com, retrieved March 8, 2025
SpaceX acknowledged the incident in a post on X, stating that Starship “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during ascent,” leading to a loss of contact. The company added that its team “immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.”
This event marks the second time in 2024 that a Starship test flight has resulted in debris falling and commercial air traffic disruptions. SpaceX had previously been working on an investigation into an earlier test failure but was granted approval by the FAA to proceed with its eighth test launch before completing that review.
FAA released a statement on Starship Flight 8 shortly after the March 6, 2025 failure. Retrieved March 6, 2025
The competition for airspace between commercial airlines, private aviation, and the growing space industry is particularly pronounced off the Florida coast, where launches are frequent. Incidents such as this one highlight the challenges of managing aerospace activity in high-traffic regions.
SpaceX did not immediately provide further comment regarding the mishap, but will likely announce the results of its investigation when that is completed. There is no timeline for the inquiries to be concluded.
Orlando International Airport tweeted out the Ground Stop news at 7:29 PM EST on March 6, 2025 Via X.com
Starship, when fully assembled with its Super Heavy booster, reaches a height of 403 feet and a diameter of approximately 30 feet. The vehicle is central to SpaceX’s long-term goals, including missions beyond Earth’s orbit.
Somebody explain to me what just flew through the sky in miami and disintegrated over the ocean? 😳 everyone watching had no idea how to describe it. #MiamiBeachpic.twitter.com/HTfXRyuH3y
Intuitive Machines’ confirmed the lunar lander IM-2 Athena, touched down on the Moon at approximately 11:30 a.m. CST on Thursday. That’s the good news.
The bad news, according to Intuitive’s Steve Altemus, “We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude on the surface of the moon.” In other words, not upright.
Athena becomes the third commercial mission to safely touch down on the lunar surface, albeit with two less than optimal landings. “Any time humanity puts a lander on the moon, it’s a good day,” said Tim Crain, the Intuitive Machines Chief Growth Officer. Crain is right, but undoubtedly he is somewhat disappointed at less than a full success landing of IM-2 Athena.
The scene in Intuitive Machines’ Mission Control Screen capture of NASA livestream
“[The] IMU data is a piece of data that says that we’re oriented somewhat on our side,” Crain explained later, immediately adding, “I want to get all the measurements to really be able to explain to you the configuration of the [vehicle.] I don’t have a good sense of that today.”
Several hours after the 15-foot-tall robotic lander reached the moon, uncertainty has loomed over its condition. It was unclear whether the spacecraft had executed a stable landing, allowing it to fully carry out its mission as planned, or if it had toppled or partially toppled upon touchdown—an outcome that could hinder its ability to fully deploy it scientific instruments.
Tim Crain of Intuitive Machines Screen capture from NASA stream.
At precisely 12:31 PM EST, Athena successfully touched down near the moon’s south pole. The descent and landing sequence unfolded as planned, with the spacecraft executing an 11-minute engine burn to slow its velocity for a controlled touchdown.
However, in the final moments before landing, flight controllers briefly lost communication with the lander—a disruption expected due to the dynamics of the descent. When contact was re-established, initial data confirmed that Athena had landed and was generating power through its solar panels, albeit not as much as was expected, and an indication that Athena was in less than an optimal state.
Tim Crain summed up his feelings by saying, “I’m incredibly proud of the team. I’m incredibly proud of how well this vehicle performed. And I will tell you, the future is bright for intuitive machines to land lots and lots of cargo on the moon.”
Intuitive has promised more information when it becomes available. This will an interesting mission to watch unfold.
Rocket Cargo illustration U.S. Air Force illustration/Randy Palmer
The Department of the Air Force has selected an isolated Pacific island as a test site for landing rockets designed to deliver cargo quickly across the globe. The department announced its intent on Monday to build two rocket landing pads on Johnston Island, part of Johnston Atoll, a U.S. territory located roughly 818 nautical miles westwards of Honolulu. This information was published in a notice in the Federal Register.
Location of Johnston Island, relative to Hawai’i and the continenal US.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Rocket Cargo Program plans to lease commercial rockets to transport cargo more efficiently than traditional aircraft. According to the program’s website, the goal is to deliver up to 100 tons of cargo anywhere on the planet within tactical timelines.
Currently, the information is very generic and non-specific — no designation of launch sites, for example — but one would assume SpaceX has a strong lead in providing this capability with Starship.
AFRL expects to award several contracts to develop this capability. The major solicitations and contracts are expected to be awarded to companies that can provide launch services, and companies that can develop concepts to advance the rest of the logistics cycle (loadmaster load/unload capability, rapid launch clearance, schedulers, environment survivability). For launch services, AFRL hopes to award contracts to and partner with all viable commercial providers of this capability to encourage a broad future vendor base for the operational service.
At the same time, other American aerospace companies also have launch and soft landing capabilities, for example, Blue Origin has demonstrated landings of New Shepard boosters and capsules in an operational setting. Further development of that platform could ostensibly make it a contender in this race.
Rocket Lab has designs on reusable soft-landing spacecraft as well and is in the middle of a development cycle for its Neutron vehicle. Neutron is slated to carry about 3,000 kilograms (28,700 lbs) to LEO, suggesting that it would be well short of 100 tons even in a suborbital setting, but at the same time, it is a point to point rocket by design and could just as easily return to its launch site via a second flight from the cargo destination.
All that said, it’s obvious that SpaceX is the 800 lb gorilla in this fight.
Test Cadence Would Be Relatively Slow
The proposed landing pads would support up to 10 rocket reentry landings per year over four years. These tests would evaluate the capabilities of the Rocket Cargo Vanguard program. The department anticipates that the rocket delivery tests will begin this year. Again, details are scant, but that is how the military operates.
Johnston Island Wikimedia Commons
Potential missions for the rocket cargo system include rapidly restoring mission-critical operations and delivering humanitarian aid in disaster relief scenarios.
In October 2020, Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, then head of the U.S. Transportation Command, mentioned working with SpaceX on rocket cargo deliveries, but the recent Federal Register notice does not mention any SpaceX involvement in the current trials. That makes sense, given it is an environmental assessement, but that environmental assessment does not mention any Starship infrastructure. At this time, participants in the trials is not publicly known.
Lyons previously suggested that these rockets could transport the equivalent of a C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane’s payload anywhere in the world in under an hour. His remarks, made to the National Defense Transportation Association, were cited in an Air Force news release from October 2020.
U.S. military forces are preparing for potential missile attacks on established bases in a conflict with China over Taiwan or the South China Sea. To increase operational flexibility, the Air Force has been upgrading World War II-era airfields in locations ranging from Micronesia to the Philippines.
Officials considered other locations, including Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island, and Wake Island, before selecting Johnston Island for the rocket landing site.
Area Is Familiar To The US Military
Johnston Island has a history of military use. The US Navy first started construction on the island in the 1930s and it served as a naval airfield during World War II. During the 1950s and 1960s, it served as a launch site for rockets supporting nuclear tests, notably serving as a key base for Operations Hardtack I and Hardtack II and Operation Fishbowl, all of which tested atomic weapons in the relative vicinity of the island. Between 1958 and 1975, various scientific rockets were also launched from the island. Until 2003, the site was used for the storage of chemical weapons.
A mushroom cloud rises from a nuclear test during Operation Hardtack I in 1958 Source: National Nuclear Security Administration
Environmental Impact Statement Required
Before proceeding with construction, the department must conduct an environmental assessment. This evaluation will examine the potential effects of the landing pads on essential fish habitats, migratory birds, and other protected species. Johnston Atoll is part of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, which adds further environmental considerations to the project.
The Air Force, which includes the Space Force, expects minimal environmental impact from the construction and operation of the landing pads. A draft environmental assessment may be available in April, allowing for a 30-day public comment period.
Photos of the aftermath of atomic testing at Johnston Atoll
Starship Heavy lifts off from Boca Chica, Texas to start the IFT-6 mission. Photo: Richard Gallagher, FMN
SpaceX, never a company to shy away from daunting challenges, said yesterday that it plans to launch its Starship Heavy megarocket from Florida late this year, pending the completion of environmental reviews. Previously, it had been believed that Starship would come in 2026 or even later, due to several factors: permitting, needed construction and incomplete infrastructure needed to launch the 397 foot tall rocket.
The reviews are just one of several obstacles SpaceX will need to overcome in order to actually fly Starship from Florida this year. They will also need to complete the Starship tower that has been at LC-39A for a few years, albeit in a partially finished state. Secondly SpaceX will need to construct propellant infrastructure in or near LC-39A to fuel Starship, and finally, if the company intends to land both the first stage of Starship and the Ship (second stage itself) they will need a second tower for one or the other to settle on after its mission.
Starship tower under construction at LC-39A in 2022 Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
On top of that, SpaceX will need to have a mission-capable Starship ready before the end of the year, unless they are planning to conduct test flights from the Space Coast as well as their headquarters in Texas. At this point in time, it appears that is some months away at a minimum as the company conducts test flights of the new rocket system.
All that said, it is a tall order to complete all of those items in 2025, especially at an active launch pad that is the only one that can currently support Falcon Heavy launches. On the other hand, if there is a company that can execute a demanding project plan quickly, it is SpaceX.
Déjà vu all over again: SpaceX launched another 21 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this evening. Liftoff was at 9:24 PM EST, with Falcon 9 taking the southeasterly familiar path towards The Bahamas as has been the case with all other Starlink Group 20 launches.
The first stage booster returned to Earth and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean ~250 nautical miles off the coast of Florida. Following the successful landing, an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over. While disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use the data to make Falcon even more reliable on ascent and landing
Déjà vu all over again: SpaceX launched another 21 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this evening. Liftoff was at 9:24 PM EST, with Falcon 9 taking the southeasterly familiar path towards The Bahamas as has been the case with all other Starlink Group 20 launches.
Booster B1086 was on duty for its fifth mission this evening, which is completed successfully when it touched down aboard ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’ about 8.25 minutes after launching. Unfortunately, according to SpaceX, the booster was “lost” after “an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over.”
Tonight’s landing was the 419th booster landing and the 112th landing on JRTI.
Twenty-five odd seconds after the booster landed, Falcon 9’s second stage achieved its initial orbit, and at T+ 00:53:58, the second stage refired its Merlin Vacuum engine in a brief orbit-rounding burn prior to payload deployment.
At 10:29 PM EST, SpaceX announced a successful payload deployment, marking the completion of another successful mission for the company, save for the loss of a relatively new booster.
Payload
Starlink satellites are part of SpaceX’s initiative to create a global broadband internet network. Some key facts:
Design: Starlink satellites are flat-panel devices equipped with multiple high-throughput antennas and solar panels. The design allows them to be launched in bulk.
Orbit: They operate in low Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes ranging from approximately 340 km to 1,200 km. This lowers latency compared to traditional satellites in geostationary orbit.
Constellation: SpaceX has deployed thousands of satellite to date, creating a constellation that can provide extensive coverage and capacity across the globe.
Communication: They use advanced phased-array technology for beam forming, allowing for high-speed data transmission to ground stations and user terminals.
Overall, Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency internet access, especially in rural and underserved areas to nearly five million customers in over 200 countries.
Starlink serves over five million customers in over 100 countries worldwide. The service currently has more than 7,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Launch Replay
Next Launch
SpaceX’s Starlink 12-21 is planned to launch early Wednesday morning.
Organization: SpaceX
Location: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Rocket: Falcon 9
Pad: Space Launch Complex 40
Status: To Be Confirmed
Status Info: Awaiting official confirmation – current date is known with some certainty.
Window Opens: Wednesday, 03/05/2025 1:00:00 AM
Window Closes: Wednesday, 03/05/2025 5:31:00 AM
Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission Description: A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation – SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.
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