SpaceX wants to test a space capsule on Tuesday that will be able to quickly deliver payload to any location on Earth in the future. This emerges from documents from the aviation regulator FAA; there is almost no information from the company itself about the so-called “Starfall Demo Mission”. It is scheduled to be launched this Tuesday shortly before 1 p.m. with a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After the space capsule has reached a low Earth orbit, it will re-enter the atmosphere over the eastern Pacific and be secured there. If it doesn’t work on Tuesday, the mission should be carried out on Wednesday.
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The US military is already testing payload transport by rocket
While SpaceX has remained tight-lipped about the mission and plans for Starfall, some information can be found in the final environmental impact assessment that the FAA released in May. It says SpaceX plans to “develop a production-ready re-entry vehicle that can precisely deliver cargo from space to various locations on Earth.” This should be able to be launched with a Falcon 9 or a Starship. Alternatively, you should be able to pay for access to microgravity, for example for tests or experiments that are only possible in orbit. In total, a Starfall capsule has space for 1000 kg of payload. It would control its re-entry, to be determined in advance, by the orientation of its heat shield.
It is unclear who will pay the price for such a delivery anywhere in the world. The obvious customer is the US military. SpaceX is not the only company that wants to develop the technology for this; the US company Inversion is planning something similar. However, SpaceX has much of the necessary infrastructure and just needs to show how quickly such deliveries can actually take place. After all, it still takes time to load a rocket and get it ready for launch. In contrast, the US military has sophisticated logistics that can now quickly send much larger payloads around the globe. However, there are already plans for the use of transport rockets. SpaceX wants to broadcast the start of the “Starfall Demo Mission” live on the Internet.
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