KENNEDY SPACE CENTER/TITUSVILLE, FL – The Oct. 8, 2026 print edition of Florida Today, the paper featured my extended commentary and analysis about the “potentially catastrophic” implications for NASA of SpaceX retiring their very successful Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon human spacecraft launching NASA and partner astronauts to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit (LEO) – prematurely in my view!
SpaceX has announced they will unilaterally retire the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon around 2030 – leaving NASA in a lurch
The story is titled “NASA faces uncertain future as SpaceX plans to retire Falcon 9, Crew Dragon
This is especially bad situation given there is no currently viable alternative to launch American astronauts to the ISS – planned by NASA to retire around 2030 – given that Boeing Starliner is still not certified for human spaceflight and still requires further modifications and upgrades to thruster and helium and overheating issues before it can be human-rated by NASA.
My first of multiple quotes:
“This is potentially going to be catastrophic,” said Ken Kremer, a science journalist and founder of the blog Space UpClose about the future retirement of Falcon 9 and Dragon. “I’m shocked, actually shocked they would say they’re going to hand off this business to Boeing, and they’re basically going to abandon low Earth orbit and not provide any help to NASA when Musk has said repeatedly – and (SpaceX President and COO Gwynne) Shotwell and others – that NASA saved them 20 years ago when they gave them that contract.”
See the Florida Today Oct. 1 front page as lead image and the remainder on 2nd page below
An uncrewed Starliner-1 test flight is planned for early 2027
To date all 3 Starliner missions have experienced significant failures and problems
If all goes well Starliner will launch mid 2028 earliest with the end of the ISS barely more than a year thereafter
Alas my last name is misspelled in the newspaper version on Oct 8.
The online version of this excellent story by Florida Today reporter Brooke Edwards – is here, with my name spelled correctly:
Story with subscription here:
Why SpaceX retiring Dragon too soon could be ‘catastrophic,’ experts warn
“So you’re now going to transform it into a time of great uncertainty,” said Kremer. “And here we are, only three years from the end of the decade, and there is no plan in place.”
I expressed my concerns directly to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in a friendly, informal, unplanned chat at the KSC press site shortly after the NASA Crew 13 successful launch to ISS on Oct. 1
Liftoff of NASAs Crew-13 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule took place right on time Thursday, Oct. 1 at 11:10 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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