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SpaceX ships two Falcon boosters to Florida for a busy spring of launches

Pictured here after its second launch and landing, Falcon 9 B1049 could be one of the boosters recently spotted in Florida. (Pauline Acalin)

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Two days before the first attempted launch of Falcon Heavy Block 5, a Florida local caught a separate Falcon booster crossing the state border on its way to one of SpaceX’s two Cape Canaveral launch pads.

Soon after, a separate Falcon booster was tracked heading East through Arizona, Louisiana, and Florida, a rare back-to-back rocket shipment bringing to an end two months of little visible activity. Prelude to a busy spring and early summer manifest, these Falcon booster arrivals signify a new influx of rocket hardware as SpaceX prepares for several upcoming missions. Ranging from Falcon Heavy Flight 3 to Crew Dragon’s critical in-flight abort test, SpaceX has no less than seven launches planned between now and the end of July.

Core Spotting – Episode 74

This brings us to another episode of analysis of SpaceX’s ever-changing fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. The cast of flightworthy Block 5 rockets now includes either seven or eight flight-proven boosters and perhaps 2-3 unflown boosters. The new center core believed to be assigned to Falcon Heavy’s third launch (B1057) is reportedly already in Florida, while both flight-proven Falcon Heavy side boosters (B1052 and B1053) were transported to SpaceX’s Pad 39A hangar for refurbishment less than a week after their first launch and landing.

Of the above fleet, B1047, B1048, B1050, B1051, B1052, and B1053 are already known to be located at SpaceX’s Florida facilities, all of which launched from Cape Canaveral within the last five months. After successfully supporting Crew Dragon’s orbital launch debut in March, B1051 is currently assigned to SpaceX’s second West Coast launch of the year and will likely be shipped to California in the next few weeks. B1057, believed to be the next new Falcon Heavy center core, is likely already in Florida to prepare for its a launch as early as late June.

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 after its second launch and landing. (SpaceX)
Falcon 9 B1048 returned to Port Canaveral on Feb. 24 after the rocket’s third successful launch and landing. (Tom Cross)
If SpaceX manages to recover Falcon Heavy center core B1055, it will be the second rocket to return to port as boat. (Tom Cross)
B1050 may be unsalvageable after an accidental water landing in December 2018. (Tom Cross)
Falcon 9 B1051 returns to Port Canaveral after supporting Crew Dragon’s flawless launch debut. (Pauline Acalin)
USAF photographer James Rainier’s remote camera captured this spectacular view of Falcon Heavy Block 5 side boosters B1052 and B1053 returning to SpaceX Landing Zones 1 and 2. (USAF – James Rainier)

This leaves either two known flight-proven boosters or new Falcon boosters as the likely suspects captured in a duo of April core spottings, one on April 8th and another on April 17th. SpaceX has two flightworthy Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters – B1047 and B1048 – at its Florida facilities, so it’s not out of the question that both spotted cores are new. They could also be B1046 and B1049, both of which recently completed launches from SpaceX’s Vandenberg pad and have been undergoing refurbishment in California. SpaceX’s West Coast manifest could have just two launches for the rest of 2019, meaning that there is no practical reason to keep unassigned boosters nearby.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has plans to begin operational Starlink constellation launches as early as mid-May and likely has more than one planned for 2019. The launch-hungry venture will need as many Falcon 9 boosters as it can get – the more, the merrier. Heading into Q3 2019, SpaceX’s first crewed launch of Crew Dragon (DM-2) is in need of a new Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and is reportedly scheduled no earlier than (NET) October. One of the cores spotted in the last week or so could be that very rocket, arriving early due to the gravity of DM-2 and the need to double, triple, and quadruple-check the hardware to best ensure mission success.

The first Falcon booster of April was spotted entering Florida on the 8th by Reddit user Ferret_Bastard. (Reddit /u/ferret_bastard)
Nine days later (April 17th), Facebook SpaceX group member Joshua Murrah spotted a separate Falcon booster entering Florida. (Joshua Murrah)

At the end of the day, the most likely explanation is that one of the boosters spotted is new, while one is B1046 or B1049. This is supported by the fact that the second instance was coincidentally tracked throughout its journey, with fans in California, Tuscon, Louisiana, and Florida all catching glimpses between April 12th and April 17th. SpaceX static fires all unflown boosters in McGregor, Texas before they are delivered to a launch site, a procedure that typically takes no less than two weeks from arrival to departure. The booster spotted entering Florida on April 8th, however, does not seem to have been spotted by the same unofficial network of SpaceX fans.

Finally, there is a chance that one of these boosters is a new Falcon 9 assigned to SpaceX’s next Cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station. CRS-17 is scheduled for launch on April 26th, cutting it extremely close for the booster to be arriving just two weeks before its static fire test.

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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 reveals SpaceX’s target for Starship’s 10th launch

Elon Musk has revealed SpaceX’s target timeline for the next Starship launch, which will be the tenth in program history.

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Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk has revealed SpaceX’s target timeline for the next Starship launch, which will be the tenth in program history.

Musk says SpaceX is aiming for a timeline of roughly three weeks from now, which would come about ten weeks after the previous launch.

Coincidentally, it would bring the two launches 69 days apart, and if you know anything about Elon Musk, that would be an ideal timeline between two launches.

SpaceX is coming off a test flight in which it lost both the Super Heavy Booster and the Upper Stage in the previous launch. The Super Heavy Booster was lost six minutes and sixteen seconds into the flight, while SpaceX lost communication with the Ship at 46 minutes and 48 seconds.

Musk is aiming for the tenth test flight to take place in early August, he revealed on X:

This will be SpaceX’s fourth test flight of the Starship program in 2025, with each of the previous three flights bringing varying results.

IFT-7 in January brought SpaceX its second successful catch of the Super Heavy Booster in the chopstick arms of the launch tower. The ship was lost after exploding during its ascent over the Turks and Caicos Islands.

IFT-8 was on March 6, and SpaceX caught the booster once again, but the Upper Stage was once again lost.

The most recent flight, IFT-9, took place on May 27 and featured the first reused Super Heavy Booster. However, both the Booster and Upper Stage were lost.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hit SpaceX with a mishap investigation for Flight 9 on May 30.

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SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission targets July 31 launch amid tight ISS schedule

The flight will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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(Credit: SpaceX)

NASA and SpaceX are targeting July 31 for the launch of Crew-11, the next crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The flight will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using the Crew Dragon Endeavour and a Falcon 9 booster.

Crew Dragon Endeavour returns

Crew-11 will be the sixth flight for Endeavour, making it SpaceX’s most experienced crew vehicle to date. According to SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker, Endeavour has already carried 18 astronauts representing eight countries since its first mission with NASA’s Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in 2020, as noted in an MSN report.

“This Dragon spacecraft has successfully flown 18 crew members representing eight countries to space already, starting with (NASA astronauts) Bob (Behnken) and Doug (Hurley) in 2020, when it returned human spaceflight capabilities to the United States for the first time since the shuttle retired in July of 2011,” Walker said.

For this mission, Endeavour will debut SpaceX’s upgraded drogue 3.1 parachutes, designed to further enhance reentry safety. The parachutes are part of SpaceX’s ongoing improvements to its human-rated spacecraft, and Crew-11 will serve as their first operational test.

The Falcon 9 booster supporting this launch is core B1094, which has launched in two previous Starlink missions, as well as the private Ax-4 mission on June 25, as noted in a Space.com report.

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The four-members of Crew-11 are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, as well as Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov.

Tight launch timing

Crew-11 is slated to arrive at the ISS just as NASA coordinates a sequence of missions, including the departure of Crew-10 and the arrival of SpaceX’s CRS-33 mission. NASA’s Bill Spetch emphasized the need for careful planning amid limited launch resources, noting the importance of maintaining station altitude and resupply cadence.

“Providing multiple methods for us to maintain the station altitude is critically important as we continue to operate and get the most use out of our limited launch resources that we do have. We’re really looking forward to demonstrating that capability with (CRS-33) showing up after we get through the Crew-11 and Crew-10 handover,” Spetch stated.

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SpaceX launches Ax-4 mission to the ISS with international crew

The SpaceX Falcon 9 launched Axiom’s Ax-4 mission to ISS. Ax-4 crew will conduct 60+ science experiments during a 14-day stay on the ISS.

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spacex-ax-4-mission-iss
(Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket kickstarting Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Axiom’s Ax-4 mission is led by a historic international crew and lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 2:31 a.m. ET on June 25, 2025.

The Ax-4 crew is set to dock with the ISS around 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, June 26, 2025. Axiom Space, a Houston-based commercial space company, coordinated the mission with SpaceX for transportation and NASA for ISS access, with support from the European Space Agency and the astronauts’ governments.

The Ax-4 mission marks a milestone in global space collaboration. The Ax-4 crew, commanded by U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, includes Shubhanshu Shukla from India as the pilot, alongside mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

“The trip marks the return to human spaceflight for those countries — their first government-sponsored flights in more than 40 years,” Axiom noted.

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Shukla’s participation aligns with India’s Gaganyaan program planned for 2027. He is the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS since Rakesh Sharma in 1984.

Axiom’s Ax-4 mission marks SpaceX’s 18th human spaceflight. The mission employs a Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, designed with a launch escape system and “two-fault tolerant” for enhanced safety. The Axiom mission faced a few delays due to weather, a Falcon 9 leak, and an ISS Zvezda module leak investigation by NASA and Roscosmos before the recent successful launch.

As the crew prepares to execute its scientific objectives, SpaceX’s Ax-4 mission paves the way for a new era of inclusive space research, inspiring future generations and solidifying collaborative ties in the cosmos. During the Ax-4 crew’s 14-day stay in the ISS, the astronauts will conduct nearly 60 experiments.

“We’ll be conducting research that spans biology, material, and physical sciences as well as technology demonstrations,” said Whitson. “We’ll also be engaging with students around the world, sharing our experience and inspiring the next generation of explorers.”

SpaceX’s Ax-4 mission highlights Axiom’s role in advancing commercial spaceflight and fostering international partnerships. The mission strengthens global space exploration efforts by enabling historic spaceflight returns for India, Poland, and Hungary.

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