SpaceX launches Starfall return capsule for second time after weather delay
A Falcon 9 lifted off at 7:04 a.m. EDT carrying 32 payloads. The disk-shaped capsule is designed to bring up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo back from orbit, such as microgravity research.
Archive image · Photo: U.S. Space Force photo by Joshua Conti / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
SpaceX launched its Starfall return capsule for the second time on Tuesday. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7:04 a.m. EDT on the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission with 32 payloads, a day after Monday's attempt was scrubbed because of poor weather in the booster recovery zone. The first stage landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic about nine minutes after liftoff, completing its 19th flight.
Starfall was scheduled to be the last payload to separate, about 2 hours and 48 minutes after launch. According to a Federal Aviation Administration environmental assessment, the disk-shaped capsule is about 3.1 meters wide, weighs about 2,100 kilograms and can return up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo to Earth. SpaceX says it aims to enable affordable, routine access to microgravity for research and in-space manufacturing. The capsule first flew in June.
Other payloads included a capsule from U.S. startup Varda Space Industries, which aims to make products such as pharmaceuticals in orbit, and an Earth-observation satellite from Planet. SpaceX did not immediately say where Starfall would land.