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SpaceX’s flight-proven Falcon 9 and drone ship fleet ready for duo of launches
SpaceX is gearing up for a duo of flight-proven Falcon 9 launches and drone ship landings on both coasts of the United States, set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg Air Force Base no earlier than (NET) November 15th and 19th, respectively.
#SpaceXArmada: Moments ago, outbound tugboat Hawk with droneship OCISLY in tow in @PortCanaveral. Destination: Booster core landing/recovery LZ of Thursday's #Eshail2 launch, approx 408 mi E of @NASAKennedy. pic.twitter.com/n5FvBdIvpt
— Cowboy Dan (@CowboyDanPaasch) November 12, 2018
East Coast activities
On the East Coast, drone ship Of Course I Still Love You departed from Port Canaveral late last night (Nov 11) as Falcon 9 B1047 rolled onto Pad 39A for a preflight static fire test, where the rocket will be filled with a full complement of fluids (TEA/TEB, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, kerosene) and all nine Merlin 1D engines are ignited in order to replicate the seconds just prior to a real launch. That static fire test was originally expected to occur on November 10 or 11 but has obviously been pushed back a day to Nov. 12, likely meaning that the rocket’s launch – carrying Qatari communications satellite Es’hail-2 – will slip 24 hours to 3:46pm EST (08:46 UTC) on the 16th,
Following the unfortunate loss of Amos-6 during a preflight static fire in September 2016, SpaceX has since made a reasonable move away from performing static fires with payloads integrated atop the rocket, unless the customer specifically requests that it be done that way to save time. As such, Falcon 9 must be brought horizontal, rolled back to the hangar, inspected, and finally have the payload and fairing attached to the rocket, a sensitive process that demands nuance and time. Combined with an analysis of data gathered during the static fire, this process – when all goes as planned – can take at least 48 hours from start to finish, and longer still if any minor off-nominal behavior is observed or the launch customer has additional requirements (typically reserved for NASA and national security-related missions).
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- B1047 horizontal at Pad 39A, November 11. (Tom Cross)
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- B1047 made an extraordinary ring vortex rainbow as it smashed through Max Q, the point of highest aerodynamic stress on the rocket. (Tom Cross)
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- B1046 seen mid-static fire at Pad 39A ahead of Falcon 9 Block 5’s launch debut, May 2018. (Tom Cross)
Because rockets like Falcon 9 are extraordinarily intricate and finely-tuned machines, perfectly nominal launch-related events are few and far between. In reality, the time between static fire rollout and launch readiness is rarely less than three days (72 hours), not including the process of rolling the fully-integrated rocket back out to the pad, aligning and securing the vehicle and transporter-erector (TE) over the flame trench, and finally attaching all umbilical connections and verifying vehicle health. Speaking generally, four to five days is a good rule of thumb for the time it takes to complete Falcon 9’s static fire and return the rocket to the pad after attaching the payload.
Still, it’s always a good sign when a drone ship leaves port, much like OCISLY did on the evening of the 11th. The journey to its destination will take 2-3 days, meaning that the drone ship will be ready to catch Falcon 9 whenever the rocket is ready to launch.
Drone ships and sooty rockets, oh my!
On the West Coast, SpaceX is also getting ready for drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) to depart Port of San Pedro in anticipation of a presumed sea recovery of Falcon 9 following the NET Nov 19 launch of a multi-satellite rideshare mission known as SSO-A. While SpaceX currently holds two recovery licenses for the booster, one by sea and one at the land-based LZ-4 pad, it’s possible that the company will be forced to use JRTI despite the fact that Falcon 9 will have plenty of propellant left to return itself to the launch site (RTLS). United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) next Delta IV Heavy rocket is currently on-pad with a presumably very expensive National Reconnaissance (NRO) satellite attached roughly 1.5 miles northeast of SpaceX’s LZ-4 – the rest of the gaps are easy enough to fill in.
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- Falcon 9 Block 5 booster B1046 seen during both of its post-launch landings. (SpaceX/SpaceX)
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- B1047 completed its first successful launch in July 2018. (Tom Cross)
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- B1047 seen rolling into 39A’s integration hangar for refurbishment on July 31st. (Reddit – Kent767)
JRTI was spotted by Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin performing some rare sea trials on November 10 after spending several weeks berthed at port for routine maintenance and deck repairs. Fairing recovery vessel Mr. Steven has also been undergoing some unusual modifications, now proudly sporting what can only be described as a steel horn recently installed on the tip of his bow deck. After sitting out a catch attempt during the launch of SAOCOM 1A to prepare for controlled helicopter drop tests performed over a period of several weeks in October, Mr. Steven will most likely be ready for another stab at operational fairing recovery during SSO-A.
Both rockets – B1047 to the East and (presumed) B1046 to the West – are flight-proven, meaning that they have flown operational orbital missions prior to their upcoming launch attempts, B1047 launched communications satellite Telstar 19V in July 2018, while B1046 has actually performed two successful launches already, Bangabandhu-1 in May and Telkom 4 (Merah Putih) in August.
For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!
Elon Musk
Elon Musk just set a condition that could end Falcon 9 as we know it
Elon Musk says SpaceX will finally retire Falcon 9 once Starship flies reliably every week.
Elon Musk gave the clearest timeline yet for retiring Falcon 9, SpaceX’s workhorse rocket.
The comment came in a reply on X, where Musk wrote that “once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift super scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day, which means winding down Falcon.” He was responding to physicist Casey Handmer, who noted that NASA is reportedly uneasy about SpaceX phasing out Falcon after building what Handmer called the most successful launcher ever, with the fleet nearing 1,000 total launches.
Now @SciGuySpace reports NASA is in a tizzy because after running the most successful launcher ever for more than a decade and nearing 1000 launches, @SpaceX is planning to retire Falcon in favor of Starship in a few years.
Sorry, NASA, you’ve had 15 years to burn down the… https://t.co/uCNoMwK0v9
— Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer) August 22, 2026
Falcon 9 is still SpaceX’s busiest vehicle by far. The company is on pace for roughly 140 to 145 Falcon flights this year, following 165 in 2025, president Gwynne Shotwell told Time earlier in 2026. She has already said Falcon flights would “tail off” as Starship comes online, while reports indicate that SpaceX has stopped booking new Falcon 9 launches past 2028 and halted production of some expendable Falcon hardware, according to Bloomberg.
It’s worth noting that Musk’s post is a condition, and not a countdown on when Falcon will retire. Starship has not yet flown weekly, let alone daily. Its most recent flight in July ended with a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, a milestone Musk pointed to earlier this month when he said the vehicle’s heat shield problem was effectively solved. SpaceX towed that ship to Christmas Island for inspection, and the next flight, Flight 14, is aimed at putting Starship into orbit for the first time. A tower catch attempt for the upper stage has been pushed back to what Musk has called “a few months” away.
SpaceX and a new Trump order that could rewrite the next decade of launches
The gap between Falcon’s role today and Starship’s promised role tomorrow matters most to NASA. Falcon and its Dragon capsule remain the only way the agency rotates astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and Starship is not certified to carry NASA crews. Musk’s post did not address how that handoff would work if Falcon winds down before a crew-rated Starship variant exists. The timing lines up with Musk’s other recent Starship comments. Two days before the Falcon post, he told a different X user that SpaceX is aiming for more than 30 Starship launches a day by 2030, or roughly 10,000 a year, a figure tied to the Trump administration’s new push for higher national launch cadence. Falcon, which took over a decade to reach its first 100 launches, was never built to approach that kind of volume.
For now, Falcon 9 keeps flying at a near-record pace while Starship works to prove it can do the job Musk has already picked out for it.
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Tesla Cybercab is set to launch in Austin, Texas, on September 3, as the company has officially started sending out invitations to a dedicated event it will hold in the city where its headquarters is located.
The Cybercab is Tesla’s dedicated ride-sharing vehicle: it features just two seats and has no steering wheel or pedals. It is aimed at fully autonomous passenger transport, and will operate in the Robotaxi fleet alongside the Tesla Model Y, which has been performing driverless rides for real-world passengers for more than a year.
Thank you so much @Tesla for inviting us to the Cybercab launch in Austin! 🤠 pic.twitter.com/F1rAR8zd5O
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 22, 2026
The launch of the Cybercab marks the next chapter in Tesla’s autonomy story. The company has been developing autonomous transport for years with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) platform, which is available in any vehicle the company has built with the proper hardware and software capabilities.
Its capabilities vary by hardware and software version, but Tesla says its latest hardware version, known as AI4, can deliver full autonomy. However, future vehicles will operate with even more robust hardware packages, as Tesla will develop AI4.5 and AI5 for even more capability in its vehicles.
Following a report from The Information that surfaced earlier this week, the writing was on the wall that Tesla was set to launch Cybercab in the near term. The report stated Tesla could launch Cybercab as soon as the end of August. Tesla came close and has booked it for September 3.
The big thing with this event being scheduled is not necessarily that Tesla is launching a new vehicle, but instead that it is launching a vehicle that has no steering wheel or pedals and will operate exclusively on a self-driving program that is evidently nearing full autonomy. If the event allows vehicles to take passengers on public roads and drop them off wherever they please within the City of Austin, it will be a drastic advancement in the company’s self-driving story.
People have ridden in Cybercab previously: Tesla had the “We, Robot” event in October 2024, which allowed people to experience fully autonomous rides in a closed circuit at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
🚨 Ride in a Tesla Cybercab with us
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 11, 2025
Additionally, Tesla launched employee rides in Cybercab in July.
It’s a drastic step forward for Tesla, whose CEO, Elon Musk, has promised for years that the company would release a fully autonomous vehicle and platform capable of allowing drivers to relinquish any responsibility behind the wheel.
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Elon Musk put a number on where he thinks SpaceX’s Starship program is headed by 2030, replying on X a day after President Trump signed a memo pushing the country toward 1,000 space launches and reentries a year.
The exchange started when Aaron Burnett, co-founder of propulsion startup Mach 33, posted that “1,000 launches/reentries is the goal,” quoting White House science adviser Michael Kratsios on the newly signed National Space Transportation Policy. Burnett noted that the FAA’s own bull-case forecast reached only 385 annual launches by 2030, while his firm’s conservative model already put SpaceX alone near 940. Musk responded, “We’re aiming to reach 30+ Starship launches/day in 2030, which is ~10k annualized. Still tiny numbers compared to airplane flights!”
We’re aiming to reach 30+ Starship launches/day in 2030, which is ~10k annualized.
Still tiny numbers compared to airplane flights!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 21, 2026
That figure is specific to Starship, the rocket SpaceX is still developing for orbital and lunar missions, not the Falcon 9 fleet that carries most of the company’s current launch volume. Starship has flown twice this year, a slower pace than the four and five flights SpaceX managed in 2024 and 2025. Getting from two flights a year to 30 a day is the scale of jump the new federal policy is meant to clear regulatory room for.
Trump’s memo, signed Thursday, directs agencies to identify new launch and reentry sites on federal land, including a new reentry site within 90 days, and to speed up the permitting and environmental reviews that have long slowed cadence growth. It also sets a goal of returning American astronauts to the moon by 2028 and placing initial lunar base elements by 2030, tying the launch buildout directly to NASA’s Artemis program.
SpaceX has already been pushing the FAA toward higher numbers on its own. The agency approved up to 44 annual Starship launches from Kennedy Space Center in February, on top of a 2024 review that raised the cap at Starbase in Texas to 25 a year. Those approvals cover a fraction of the 10,000 annual flights Musk is now describing, which shows how far current permitting still sits from the administration’s stated target.
The near-term test of all this is more modest. SpaceX cleared a full-duration, six-engine static fire on its next Starship vehicle this week, the last major hardware checkpoint before Flight 14, which is targeting no earlier than August 28 and is expected to attempt the vehicle’s first full orbital mission. Musk said last week that a tower catch of the upper stage is still probably months away, a reminder that the immediate roadmap remains far more incremental than the daily launch numbers he just posted.
Elon Musk just set a condition that could end Falcon 9 as we know it
Tesla will launch Cybercab on September 3
