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Falcon 9 B1047 seen aboard SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 B1047 seen aboard SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. (SpaceX)

SpaceX

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Block 5 set for first Cargo Dragon spacecraft launch

Falcon 9 B1047 aboard SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. (SpaceX)

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After a slight 24-hour delay at NASA’s request, SpaceX is ready to support Falcon 9 Block 5’s first launch of Cargo Dragon and the company’s 16th operational mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS).

Carrying just under 2600 kg (5700 lbs) of science experiments, ISS hardware, and replenishable goods, CRS-16 will be the fifth time SpaceX has reused a Cargo Dragon capsule that has already been to orbit, with this particular capsule having launched in February and reentered in March of 2017.

Aside from being the first NASA-certified launch of SpaceX’s recent Block 5 upgrade to the Falcon rocket family, CRS-16 will become the first attempted East Coast land-landing of a Falcon 9 Block 5 booster, hopefully seeing B1050 safely recovered at one of the company’s two Landing Zones (LZ-1 or LZ-2) on the Florida coast. Above all else, this type of landing  – known as a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) recovery – indicates that Falcon 9 is able to fly a fairly gentle launch and reentry trajectory, owing to a combination of a light payload and low-energy target orbit. As such, B1050 could be a prime candidate to break SpaceX’s launch turnaround record of 72 days – the new Block 5 booster will be subjected to one of the upgraded rocket’s gentlest landings yet.

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2018 has been a landmark year for SpaceX’s program of Falcon 9 reusability, evidenced by the fact that a full 60% of the company’s 19 (20 if CRS-16 is a success) launches have flown on or with flight proven boosters. That impressive ratio is likely to only grow further as we head into 2019, to the extent that – by 2020 – the launch of a new Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy booster could be downright rare.

On the Dragon side of things, SpaceX completed the last launch of a wholly new Cargo Dragon in August 2017, nearly 16 months ago. Since then, all Cargo Dragon launches have featured refurbished capsules, although the spacecraft’s trunk section – featuring some propellant, solar arrays, and storage space – is expended after each mission and must thus be replaced. As of now, SpaceX has only one or two flightworthy Cargo Dragons left that have completed fewer than two trips to orbit and back, meaning that a minimum of two of the company’s remaining CRS-1 missions (CRS-17 through 20) will have to be their given capsule’s third orbital launch. Thankfully, Cargo Dragon has long been designed for three launches per capsule lifetime.

The first of those third orbital reflights will almost certainly kick off sometime next year. In the meantime, SpaceX’s CRS-16 launch will be livestreamed as usual and can be viewed here, beginning later today around 10am PST (1pm EST, 18:00 UTC).

 

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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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Elon Musk

SpaceX’s next project will produce Starships at a level that sounds impossible

1,000 rockets per year is an insane number, especially considering Starship’s sheer size.

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Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk has revealed bold plans for SpaceX’s newest Starbase facility in Texas, predicting it will become a birthplace for “so many spaceships.” The upcoming “Gigabay,” a massive $250 million production hub in Starbase, Texas, is designed to manufacture up to 1,000 Starship rockets per year.

That’s an insane number of rockets for a single facility, especially considering Starship’s sheer size. 

One of the world’s largest industrial structures

SpaceX’s Gigabay is expected to stand roughly 380 feet tall and enclose 46.5 million cubic feet of interior space, making it one of the largest industrial structures to date. The facility will feature 24 dedicated work cells for assembling and refurbishing Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, complete with heavy-duty cranes capable of lifting up to 400 U.S. tons, as noted in a Times of India report.

Construction crews have already placed four tower cranes on-site, with completion targeted for December 2026. Once operational, the Gigabay is expected to boost SpaceX’s launch cadence dramatically, as it would be able to build up to 1,000 reusable Starships per year, as noted in a report from the Dallas Express. Musk stated that the Gigabay will be “one of the biggest structures in the world” and hinted that it represents a major leap in Starbase’s evolution from test site to full-scale production hub.

A key step toward Mars and beyond

Starship is SpaceX’s heavy-lift rocket system, and it remains a key part of Elon Musk’s vision of a multiplanetary future. The vehicle can carry 100–150 tonnes to low Earth orbit and up to 250 tonnes in expendable mode. With several successful flights to date, including a perfect 11th test flight, the Starship program continues to refine its reusable launch system ahead of crewed lunar missions under NASA’s Artemis initiative.

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Starship is unlike any other spacecraft that has been produced in the past. As per Elon Musk, Starship is a “planet-colonizer” class rocket, as the magnitude of such a task “makes other space transport task trivial.” Considering Starship’s capabilities, it could indeed become the spacecraft that makes a Moon or Mars base feasible. 

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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck fleet takes over at SpaceX’s Starbase

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

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Credit: @derek1ee | X

Tesla Cybertrucks have taken over at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, as hundreds of the all-electric pickup trucks were spotted late last week rounding out a massive fleet of vehicles.

The Cybertruck fleet is geared toward replacing gas vehicles that are used at Starbase for everyday operations. The only surprise about this is that it was not done sooner:

Deliveries have been going on for a few weeks, as Cybertrucks have made their way across the state of Texas from Austin to Starbase so they could be included in SpaceX’s fleet of vehicles at the facility.

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

However, there are some other perspectives to consider as SpaceX is utilizing such a massive fleet of Cybertrucks. Some media outlets (unsurprisingly) are seeing this as a move of weakness by both Tesla and SpaceX, as the aerospace company is, in a sense, “bailing out” lagging sales for the all-electric pickup.

It’s no secret that Tesla has struggled with the Cybertruck this year, and deliveries have been underwhelming in the sense that the company was anticipating between 1 million and 2 million orders for the vehicle before it was widely produced.

A lot of things changed with the Cybertruck between its 2019 unveiling and 2023 initial deliveries, most notably, price.

The price of the Cybertruck swelled significantly and priced out many of those who had pre-ordered it. Some have weighed the option of whether this purchase was a way to get rid of sitting inventory.

However, it seems more logical to consider the fact that SpaceX was likely always going to transition to Teslas for its fleet, especially at Starship, at some point.

It doesn’t seem out of the question that one Musk company would utilize another Musk company’s products, especially considering the Cybertruck has been teased as the vehicle that would be present on Mars.

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News

SpaceX successfully launches 100th Starlink mission of 2025

With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.

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(Credit: Starlink)

SpaceX achieved its 100th Starlink mission of the year on Friday, October 31, marking another milestone for 2025. 

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink broadband satellites successfully lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:41 p.m. ET, carrying another 28 Starlink satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Falcon 9 booster’s 29th flight

Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage touched down on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This marked the booster’s 29th flight, which is approaching SpaceX’s reuse record of 31 missions.

This latest mission adds to SpaceX’s impressive 138 Falcon 9 launches in 2025, 99 of which were dedicated to Starlink, according to Space.com. The company’s focus on reusing boosters has enabled this breakneck pace, with multiple launches each week supporting both Starlink’s expansion and external customers.

Starlink’s network continues massive global expansion

Starlink remains the largest active satellite constellation in history, with more than 10,000 satellites launched, nearly 8,800 of which are currently active. SpaceX recently achieved Starlink’s 10,000-satellite milestone. With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.

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Starlink, which provides high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity even to the world’s most remote areas, has been proven to be life-changing technology for people across the globe. The service is currently operational in about 150 countries, and it currently has over 5 million subscribers worldwide. From this number, 2.7 million joined over the past year.

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