SpaceX Starfall Demo: Launch time and everything you need to know

SpaceX is set to launch the first Starfall demo mission to low-Earth orbit from SpaceX launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch window for the Starfall demo mission will stay open for an hour, starting at 6:43 a.m. ET and a backup launch is available on the same day.

Starfall mission will mark the 29th reflight for the first stage booster, which previously supported important missions like Crew-6, SES 03b mPOWER-B, USSF-124, and more.

SpaceX Starfall

Starfall is a cylindrical-shaped capsule, which is around 0.75 meters tall and 3.1 meters wide in diameter. It weighs around 2,100 kg and could carry up to 1,000 kg of payload.

Unlike Dragon, Starfall isn’t designed to take humans to space. Instead, it is focusing on cargo-only rides, specifically, bringing back the cargo and any other material from space.

An FAA document confirmed that SpaceX will use the Pacific Ocean as a landing location to ensure public safety by reentry operations. It will use a specific reentry location based on mission parameters. The rocket maker planned to launch Starfall to LEO or a direct sub-orbital trajectory as a payload on top of Falcon 9 or Starship rockets.

More information shows that the reentry of Starfall through Earth’s atmosphere will happen through a pre-planned trajectory and splash down in the Pacific Ocean, around 700 nautical miles off the U.S. west coast in international waters.

The renetry are excldes the 200 nm U.S. and Mexico Exclusive Economic Zones and designated marine sanctuaries. The recovery will be similar to the Dragon spacecraft.