Connect with us
If SpaceX manages to recover Falcon Heavy center core B1055, it will be the second rocket to return to port as boat. (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)

SpaceX

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy center core goes overboard, Elon Musk still hopeful

Pictured here is B1050 in late 2018. If SpaceX manages to recover Falcon Heavy center core B1055, it will be the second rocket to return to port as boat. (Tom Cross)

Published

on

SpaceX has confirmed that bad weather and an unfortunate lack of hardware has caused the second-ever Falcon Heavy center core to slide off the deck of drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, although CEO Elon Musk suggests that the rocket’s engine section could be recoverable.

Despite the fact that all three Falcon Heavy Block 5 boosters did successfully land after the rocket’s commercial launch debut, the accidental post-landing loss of center core B1055 takes a bit of the wind out of the sails of the whole recovery endeavor. Preventable hardware destruction aside, this should not detract from the critical fact that side boosters B1052 and B1053 are safe and sound at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Landing Zone (LZ), and should still be able to support Falcon Heavy Flight 3 without delay. This anomaly also serves as a bit of an abrupt reminder of just how hard the safe landing and recovery of giant, orbital-class rocket boosters really are.

According to Musk, the loss of Falcon Heavy B1055 was caused by a combination of bad weather and the surprising fact that SpaceX’s robotic rocket grabber had yet to be modified to support Falcon Heavy center cores. Octagrabber is used to secure Falcon boosters after drone ship landings in order to better ensure the safety of SpaceX’s recovery crew. In anything short of quiet seas, massive, emptied Falcon boosters frequently end up sliding around the drone ship deck – ironically, one of the flight-proven side boosters that flew on Falcon Heavy’s launch debut was almost lost to (apparently) the same failure mode that has now effected B1055.

Musk suggested that the Falcon Heavy booster’s Merlin 1D engines could potentially be recovered and reused “pending inspection”, indicating that B1055 may still be partially sitting on OCISLY’s deck. A similar event happened during the 2016 launch of Eutelsat 117 West B, when a Falcon 9 booster aggressively impacted OCISLY’s deck after running out of propellant but left behind its battered octaweb. In B1055’s case, the booster was almost certainly safed, detanked, and depressurized, meaning that it probably didn’t explode when it tipped over and impacted the water and drone ship guardrail. SpaceX may even be able to recover the booster’s four valuable titanium grid fins and salvage additional hardware, depending on how much of the rocket remained intact and attached to OCISLY.

In December 2018, Falcon 9 B1050 suffered a grid fin hydraulic pump failure that caused the Block 5 booster to lose control authority. Despite the struggle, it managed a soft landing and SpaceX may even attempt to reuse the booster in the future.

The sad loss of another Falcon Heavy center booster has once again preventing SpaceX recovery engineers from being able to fully analyze the unique rocket’s custom side booster attachment and separation hardware. Still, the fact that major sections (including the entire octaweb) may be recoverable means that B1055 will at least be able to produce more valuable data than center core #1, which smashed into the Atlantic at ~300 mph after its 2018 debut.

A step further, the US Air Force recently indicated that Falcon Heavy Flight 3 – carrying its Space Test Program 2 (STP-2) rideshare mission – would reuse both of this launch’s side boosters but feature a brand new center core. This was announced well before B1055’s anomaly, indicating that SpaceX and the USAF had planned for some time to use new center cores on Falcon Heavy Flights 2 and 3. This means that B1055’s untimely demise should have little to no impact on SpaceX’s launch manifest, including the imminent STP-2 mission.

Falcon Heavy Flight 2 has been completed successfully after marking SpaceX's first ever triple booster recovery. (SpaceX)
Despite a flawless landing, Falcon Heavy center core B1055 was reportedly lost at sea due to high waves. (SpaceX)
Mission complete! Taken by Airmen Alex Preisser, this photo shows B1052 and B1053 shortly after coming to a rest at SpaceX's Landing Zones.
Despite the struggles of the center core, side boosters B1052 (right) and B1053 (left) are safe and sound, awaiting their next launch. (USAF – Alex Preisser)

Falcon Heavy Flight 3 is currently scheduled to launch the USAF STP-2 mission no earlier than late June – a major customer with satellites aboard has suggested NET June 22. Of course, SpaceX has only had a handful of days with its recovered Block 5 side boosters, the refurbishment of which will now be the critical path for the next launch. If B1052 and B1053 are in exceptionally good shape, a distinct possibility thanks to their relatively gentle return-to-launch-site (RTLS) recoveries, then that late June date may very well hold.

Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

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.

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

News

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.

Published

on

spacex-dragon-axiom-ax-4-mission-iss
(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.

Advertisement

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.

Continue Reading

News

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.

Published

on

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending