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SpaceX fairing catcher Mr. Steven heads for Panama Canal after one last drop test

Published

6 years ago

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Iconic fairing recovery vessel Mr. Steven appears to have quietly departed for SpaceX’s Florida launch facilities a few days after completing (successfully or not) one final controlled fairing catch test in the Pacific Ocean.

While bittersweet for those that have closely followed the vessel’s development and many attempted Falcon fairing recoveries, this move should ultimately give Mr. Steven around three times as many opportunities to attempt fairing recoveries thanks to SpaceX’s significantly higher East Coast launch cadence.

Under SpaceX lease since late 2017, the company moved the vessel to California and modified it with its first net and set of arms around December 2017. Mr. Steven attempted his first Falcon fairing catch – each half worth more than $3M – in February 2018 after the launch of Earth imaging satellite PAZ and two SpaceX Starlink prototypes, thus beginning a string of five unsuccessful recovery attempts for West Coast Falcon 9 launches. The lack of success has most certainly not been for a lack of trying, exemplified in large part by Mr. Steven’s frequent net and arm upgrades over the last year, culminating in the installation of four massive arms, a vast primary net, and a smaller secondary net below it.

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SpaceX engineers and technicians repeatedly managed to get Falcon fairing halves – autonomously guided by GPS after deploying parafoils – within 50 to a few hundred feet during several of those five post-launch attempts. In the last few months of 2018, SpaceX also began a program of controlled fairing drop tests, where a helicopter would lift a fairing half 5,000-10,000 feet up before releasing it for Mr. Steven. A recent drop test organized in either late-December or early-January saw the parasailing fairing half get so close to a successful catch that its parafoil rigging actually appeared to get tangled on (or at least bump) the edge of Mr. Steven’s net, spanning an area of around 3000 square meters (~30,000 sq ft).

Barring a continuation of SpaceX’s helicopter drop test program on the East Coast, Mr. Steven’s final controlled fairing recovery attempt occurred on January 25th, perhaps less than four days before the ship departed for Florida. After maneuvering wildly and reaching 28 mph (45 km/h) – the fastest speed yet clocked – on his trip back to port, Mr. Steven arrived with a fairing half tantalizingly cradled in the ship’s new secondary net, a perfectly ambiguous state that could indicate a successful catch and net transfer or a missed catch and ocean retrieval, with the smaller net used as an ad-hoc shock absorber during his sprint to port.

Back to Port Canaveral

Prior to Mr. Steven’s California station and arm/net upgrade, the vessel was introduced to SpaceX in Florida as a sort of faster version of the slower service vessels already used to support drone ship deployments and recover fairing halves (or shards) out of the ocean. Although it remains entirely possible that Mr. Steven’s abrupt journey towards southern Mexico is a false alarm, it appears quite likely that the vessel will ultimately end up back where it started its SpaceX journey. After returning to Port Canaveral, Mr. Steven should be able to support a range of post-launch fairing recovery attempts thanks to SpaceX’s consistently-busy East Coast launch schedule.

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At his current cruising speed of ~18 knots (21 mph/35 km/h), Mr. Steven will take at least 9-10 days (~220-240 hours) to travel the ~7500 km (4600 mi) of ocean separating Port of LA and Port Canaveral. Even assuming many lengthy stops for fuel and supplies, the vessel should easily arrive in time to attempt its first East Coast fairing catch in support of SpaceX’s next launch, NET February 18th. After that, Crew Dragon’s inaugural orbital launch (DM-1) is targeted for late February, followed by Cargo Dragon’s 17th operational mission (NET March 16th) and the second-ever launch of Falcon Heavy, absolutely no earlier than March 7th.

Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes!

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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SpaceX rescue mission for stranded ISS astronauts nears end — Here’s when they’ll return home

Published

5 days ago

on

March 17, 2025

By

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is ready to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts that have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months.

Last week, SpaceX launched its Crew-10 mission, which would dock onto the ISS late Saturday night and be the two astronauts’ ride home. Now, the end is in sight, and it appears both NASA and SpaceX are planning to have the two home this week, perhaps earlier than expected.

SpaceX readies to rescue astronauts from International Space Station

The agency and the company have announced that Dragon will autonomously undock from the ISS on Tuesday at 1:05 a.m. ET and should re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and splashdown off the Florida coast about 17 hours later.

SpaceX said:

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“SpaceX and NASA are targeting Tuesday, March 18 at 1:05 a.m. ET for Dragon to autonomously undock from the International Space Station. After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 17 hours later the same day.”

Crew-9 astronaut Nick Hague will be alongside Williams and Wilmore on the flight home, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov have been in space since Saturday, September 28.

SpaceX was tasked with bringing Wilmore and Williams home after the Boeing Starliner that sent them there was determined not to be suitable for their return.

A report from the New York Post in late August said that Boeing employees routinely made fun of SpaceX workers, only for the company to bail them out:

SpaceX bails out Boeing and employees are reportedly ‘humiliated’

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Crew-10 will bring the astronauts home, ending an extensive and unscheduled stay in space.

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SpaceX readies to rescue astronauts from International Space Station

Published

1 week ago

on

March 14, 2025

By

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is readying to launch the Crew-10 mission this evening, which will bring home U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station for nine months.

SpaceX is working alongside NASA to bring the two astronauts home, and all systems and weather conditions are looking ideal to launch the mission this evening from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Boeing was originally tasked with the rescue mission.

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The company sent a Starliner aircraft to the ISS in late September in an effort to bring Williams and Wilmore home. However, malfunctioning thrusters and other issues on the Starliner aircraft prevented NASA from giving the green light to the astronauts to board and come home.

SpaceX was then tasked with bringing the two home, and it appears they will be on their way shortly.

The launch was intended to occur on Wednesday, but a last-minute problem with the rocket’s ground systems forced SpaceX and NASA to delay until at least Friday. Things are looking more ideal for a launch this evening.

The launch is targeted for 7:03 p.m. ET, but another backup opportunity is available tomorrow, March 15, at 6:41 p.m.

SpaceX writes about the Dragon spacecraft that will be used for the mission:

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“The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched the SES 03b mPOWER-e mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”

The mission will not only aim to bring the two astronauts who have been stranded for nine months home, but it will also conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.

If Crew-10 launches at the planned time this evening, it will dock to the ISS at 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night.

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Texas awards SpaceX $17.3M grant to expand Bastrop tech hub

The grant will be used to to expand SpaceX’s Bastrop complex, which produces Starlink terminals.

Published

1 week ago

on

March 13, 2025

By

Credit: SpaceX

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that SpaceX has received a $17.3 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund. The grant will be used to expand SpaceX’s Bastrop complex. 

SpaceX’s Bastrop complex is headlined by its Starlink factory, which is currently capable of producing 15,000 dishes per day, as per a video published by the private space company on social media platform X.

The Grant

The investment is expected to develop SpaceX’s semiconductor research and development (R&D) and advanced packaging facility in Bastrop. The expansion is expected to create over 400 jobs and over $280 million in capital investment, as per a press release from the Office of the Texas Governor.

Bastrop’s Planned Expansion

SpaceX plans to grow its Bastrop site by one million square feet over the next three years, focusing on Starlink kit production, including advanced silicon components. The proposed project includes printed circuit boards (PCBs), a semiconductor failure analysis lab, and advanced packaging for panel level packaging (PLP). Once complete, SpaceX’s Bastrop facility will stand as the largest PCB and PLP facility in North America.

What They Are Saying

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell shared her appreciation for Texas’ support, saying, “Incredible innovation and high-tech manufacturing is happening in Texas as a direct result of Governor Abbott’s leadership and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund initiative. We love Texas. SpaceX is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into our Bastrop facility. This grant will help continue to expand Bastrop’s manufacturing for Starlink to help connect even more people across the state and around the world with high-speed, low-latency internet.”

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Texas Governor Abbott also shared his thoughts on the matter: “Texas connects the nation and the world with the most advanced technologies manufactured right here in our great state. I congratulate SpaceX on their more than $280 million investment in this Texas-sized expansion of their semiconductor R&D and advanced packaging facility in Bastrop, which will be the largest of its kind in North America. 

“Working together with innovative industry leaders like SpaceX, Texas will continue to rank No. 1 for semiconductor research and high-tech manufacturing and secure critical domestic supply chains as we build a stronger, more prosperous Texas than ever before,” he said.

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