PORT CANAVERAL, FL – The scorched and blackened veteran 1st stage Falcon 9 booster B1078.29 used in the secretive SpaceX Starfall Demo mission successfully launched on June 23 has arrived safely back in Port Canaveral, FL
I saw the booster on the afternoon of June 29 a few days after it arrived on June 25 and was pulled into Port Canaveral atop the A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG), droneship upon which it soft landed some eight minutes later
Enjoy my photos taken for Space UpClose of the 1st stage booster back in Port today as well as of the launch on June 23 taken in Space View Park, Titusville
F9 B1078.29 had been craned off ASOG and placed onto a ground pedestal by the time I had the opportunity to visit and photograph it
ASOG had been prepositioned in the Atlantic Ocean in anticipation of the landing
This Falcon 9 booster with tail number B1078.29 has flown to space and back 29 times successfully.
The SpaceX Starfall Demo mission launched on a veteran Falcon 9 rocket, Tuesday, June 23 at 6:53 a.m. ET (1053 UTC) to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Starfall was the first flight of new SpaceX reentry technology – testing a new hockey puck shaped reentry capsule dish that can return up to 2500 lbs of science samples or in-space manufactured products to Earth via a parachute assisted splashdown off the coast of California.
Starfall was only recently approved by the FAA after conducting an official Environmental Assessment (EA).
SpaceX is designing Starfall as a low cost cargo reentry to Earth test flight demo.
It launches 10 ft wide disk shaped cylinders for rapid transit to space and back. Usable for future in-space manufacturing & rapid science sample return.
SpaceX had released few details about Starfall – maintaining significant secrecy. after launch they did not show any views of the upper stage, satellite or deployment during their live launch broadcast
It was not clear prelaunch if the mission would be orbital or suborbital or if there the cargo involved just 1 or more than one starfall reentry capsules
SpaceX eventually reported that the Starfall did enter orbit and did successfully splashdown of the coast of California as planned – via a simple tweet
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2069420637383168301
“Deployment of Starfall confirmed.”
The Starfall technology may eventually have uses beyond spaceflight, including rapid point-to-point transportation on Earth for emergency response, rescue operations, or military logistics.
The capsules can be launched either on a Falcon 9 rocket or a Starship-Super Heavy flight according to the EA
This was the 29th flight for the first stage booster B1078 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.
I was interviewed prelaunch about Starfall by WFTV ABC News Orlando
.Jun 19/20/21/22 WFTV ABC News Orlando: Watch my commentary about SpaceX Starfall mission. New test flight demo to return cargo and in space manufacturing samples and products inside cylindrical discs – for parachute assisted splashdowns
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