{"id":478298,"date":"2026-06-02T00:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478298\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T00:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:27:17","slug":"spacex-to-test-starfall-vehicle-for-space-manufacturing-cargo-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478298\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX to test Starfall vehicle for space manufacturing, cargo return"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX will soon test reentry vehicles that could enable in-space manufacturing and rapid point-to-point cargo delivery, according to documents from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).<\/p>\n

On May 15, the FAA issued an environmental assessment for test flights of the new reentry vehicle, called Starfall. Separately, the agency issues a record of decision approving the test flights. This was all announced to the public in an \u201cFAA Space Update\u201d on May 29.<\/p>\n

New information on SpaceX\u2019s secretive Starfall project<\/p>\n

SpaceX has remained tight-lipped when it comes to providing specific details to the public regarding Starfall. The FAA documents provide some interesting insight into the project, which was first reported<\/a> by Bloomberg last year.<\/p>\n

The FAA documents<\/a> approve two reentries of Starfall capsules in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 1,300 kilometers off the coast of California. They will fly into orbit aboard either a Falcon 9 or a Starship rocket before coming back down for reentry. A direct suborbital trajectory straight to the landing zone is also an option.<\/p>\n

The circular capsules measure 3.1 meters in diameter ((10.2 feet) and 0.75 meters in height (2.5 feet). They are made up of a top plate and a heat shield, which is jettisoned before splashdown. Together, they weigh 2,100 kilograms (4,630 pounds).<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> a SpaceNews, the capsules will be able to carry up to 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds) of payload within a volume of 2.5 by 1.5 by 0.5 meters (8.2 \u00d7 4.9 \u00d7 1.6 feet).<\/p>\n

The capsules include cold-gas attitude control thrusters for propulsion. To slow their descent, they feature a single main parachute, as well as pilot and drogue parachutes. The reentry vehicles will splash down at sea, where SpaceX teams will recover them using boats.<\/p>\n

Boosting the in-space manufacturing market<\/p>\n

According to the newly released documents, Starfall will provide both in-space manufacturing and point-to-point cargo delivery services. This is in line with previously announced plans<\/a> for Starship to rapidly deliver military cargo for the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

The Starfall vehicles could also serve as a \u201cproliferated successor\u201d to the International Space Station (ISS), as they could support \u201ca self-sustaining manufacturing economy in space\u201d.<\/p>\n

In order to create a \u201cself-sustaining commercial in-space manufacturing market\u201d, the vehicles would offer access to \u201cmicrogravity and vacuum, loiter on orbit, and safe return from orbit as a service at scale,\u201d the documents state.<\/p>\n

The FAA\u2019s documents do not provide any information regarding potential launch dates for the first Starfall missions. However, the agency does clearly state that Starfall would be a large-scale project if it is eventually greenlit and officially announced by SpaceX.<\/p>\n

According to the documents, Elon Musk\u2019s private space company \u201cplans to develop a mass-producible reentry vehicle that can precisely deliver cargo from space to various locations on Earth, which would be able to launch on either Falcon 9 or Starship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Starfall could put SpaceX in direct competition with companies that have relied on SpaceX rocket launches for their business models. Varda Space Industries, for example, has flown six in-space manufacturing W-series spacecraft aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare missions. Other companies, including Inversion and Armos Space Cargo, have also flown their reentry vehicles aboard SpaceX\u2019s workhorse rocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX will soon test reentry vehicles that could enable in-space manufacturing and rapid point-to-point cargo delivery, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[605,16150,61,113779,60,22584,82,247,2306,206213,2308],"class_list":["post-478298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-faa","tag-ie","tag-in-space-manufacturing","tag-ireland","tag-rockets","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-starfall-capsule","tag-starship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}