Space
SpaceX is already preparing for operational astronaut missions
While the world’s attention is focused on the return of orbital human spaceflight from US soil after a nearly decade long absence with the upcoming May 27th Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, SpaceX is simultaneously preparing for the first Crew Dragon operational mission certified by NASA, dubbed Crew-1, slated to occur later this year.
On Friday, April 24th, SpaceX treated its Twitter followers to some rare imagery of static fire testing completed at the company’s development facility in McGregor, Texas. The company spotlighted a fresh-from-the-factory Falcon 9 booster and Falcon 9 second stage Merlin Vaccum (MVac) engine intended for the Crew-1 mission. Crew-1, the follow-up mission to May’s Demo-2 mission and SpaceX’s first operational human spaceflight mission for NASA, will propel a crew of three NASA astronauts and one JAXA astronaut in a Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.
SpaceX also provided its followers with a view of the pristine second stage MVac engine of the Crew-1 mission before it was sent to Texas for testing. The one-hundredth production MVac engine is seen inside of SpaceX’s manufacturing facility located in Hawthorne, CA before being prepared for shipment. The second stage MVac engine is the only piece of Falcon 9 hardware that SpaceX does not actively recover and reuse, unlike the first-stage booster and protective payload fairing nosecone.
Part of the process
A static fire test is a typical occurrence before shipping the booster and second stage to Florida for payload integration and launch. The static fire process involves holding down the booster and igniting the engines to run for a full-duration firing. A similar test is also performed on with the second stage MVac engine. These test-fires are performed at the Mcgregor facility to proof the vehicle and check for any inconsistencies or off-nominal test readings that may occur before shipping to the vehicle to the launch site. Following the test-fire, the entire vehicle is inspected, cleaned, and prepared for shipment.
A test-fire in Mcgregor is not the last time the engines will be put through the paces before launch. Typically a week or so before the scheduled launch date, the Falcon 9 booster is transported to the launch pad. There, the booster is fully fueled with propellant while securely held to the launch mount. All nine Merlin-1D engines are once again ignited briefly (anywhere between 6 – 12 seconds) to test the propellant load process and collect engine-firing measurements such as temperature and pressure.
Certification before operation
Although the Crew-1 mission is tentatively on the books for later this year, SpaceX and the Crew Dragon capsule have yet to achieve NASA certification to begin operational missions to and from the International Space Station. The second orbital demonstration flight of the Crew Dragon capsule (Demo-2) will serve as the final end-to-end test of SpaceX’s crew transportation system.
However, SpaceX still faces a few obstacles before achieving a full go-ahead by NASA for the launch of Demo-2. As reported by SpaceNews.com NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) met via teleconference on Thursday, April 23rd for a routine quarterly briefing. In that meeting, it was briefly discussed that there are still a few “technical items” that remain to be cleared by NASA before the launch of the Demo-2 mission.
Although not specified in the briefing – and likely to be followed up on during “part 2” of the ASAP meeting to be held in early May – those items likely refer to wrapping up the joint investigation of a recent in-flight engine failure of a Falcon 9 Merlin-1D engine and one more qualifying drop-test of the Crew Dragon Mark 3 parachutes. SpaceX, however, shows no plans letting formalities stop the preparation to support future astronaut missions.
Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes.
News
NASA taps SpaceX for more astronaut missions as Boeing Starliner remains grounded
NASA just gave SpaceX a $946 million contract for three more astronaut missions through 2030.
NASA has awarded SpaceX a $946 million contract modification covering three more astronaut missions to the International Space Station, according to an announcement the agency published Friday. The award adds Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17 to SpaceX’s existing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, bringing the agreement’s total value to $5.92 billion across 17 flights.
SpaceX confirmed the award on X, writing that it was excited for Falcon 9 and Dragon to launch NASA’s Crew-15, 16, and 17 missions to the Space Station from Florida. The new missions cover ground, launch, in orbit, and return operations, along with cargo transport and a lifeboat capability while docked at the station, and the period of performance runs through 2030.
We’re excited for Falcon 9 and Dragon to launch @NASA’s Crew-15, 16, and 17 missions to the @Space_Station from Florida https://t.co/Qm16vVK9F3 pic.twitter.com/drg3s7GtuM
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 18, 2026
The award follows a notice of intent NASA issued in May, when the agency first signaled it would purchase up to six additional post certification missions from SpaceX. Teslarati covered that filing at the time, noting NASA cited technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing as a driving factor. Friday’s contract modification locks in three of those six missions, with the remaining three left open for NASA to award later, potentially to Boeing if Starliner clears certification.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has still not flown an operational crew rotation mission for NASA. The spacecraft’s most recent crewed test flight in 2024 ended without the astronauts returning aboard Starliner, and the company has spent the time since working through thruster problems. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said this week that SpaceX is not retiring Crew Dragon today, for sure, while stopping short of committing to fly it past 2030.
Crew-12 is currently docked at the space station, and NASA has said Crew-13 is targeting a launch in the coming weeks. The newly awarded Crew-15 through Crew-17 missions extend SpaceX’s role as NASA’s primary way of getting astronauts to and from orbit well into the back half of the decade, regardless of what happens with Starliner or Starship in the meantime.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next Starship launch is about to attempt its biggest leap yet
SpaceX targets September 22 for Starship Flight 14, its first attempt to reach real orbit.
SpaceX has set September 22 as the target date for Starship’s 14th test flight, and this one carries a different goal than any of the 13 that came before it. Every previous Starship mission has intentionally flown a suborbital arc, reentering the atmosphere within the same hour it launched. Flight 14 is designed to send the craft into a genuine orbit around Earth for the first time.
The launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. Central time at Starbase in South Texas and runs for 75 minutes, pending regulatory approval, according to SpaceX’s mission description published Tuesday. If the flight goes as planned, Starship will circle the planet roughly six times at an altitude near 275 kilometers over about ten hours before a deorbit burn sends it toward a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, a departure from the Indian Ocean recoveries used on the last several flights.
The mission also marks the first attempt to put a working batch of Starlink V3 satellites into actual service. Flight 13 carried 20 of the new satellites in July, but because that mission never left a suborbital trajectory, the payload reentered along with the ship instead of separating into orbit.
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
Each V3 satellite is rated for roughly one terabit per second of downlink capacity, so a successful deployment on Flight 14 would be SpaceX’s largest single jump in network bandwidth since Starlink began flying on Falcon 9.
Flight 13 still did the heavier lifting on the technical side. That July mission flew a deliberately more stressful reentry profile to test Starship’s heat shield, and the ship survived its softest splashdown yet, intact enough for drone inspections shortly after landing. Elon Musk said the flight delivered “all the heat shield data we needed and then some,” a result Teslarati covered in detail when he later said SpaceX had solved the vehicle’s biggest reusability challenge. Flight 14 is where SpaceX starts spending that confidence on an actual orbital insertion rather than another controlled fall back to Earth.
One thing Flight 14 will not attempt is a tower catch of the ship. Musk floated the idea right after Flight 13, but walked the timeline back in August, saying a catch attempt was more likely “in a few months.” The Super Heavy booster will still aim for its own recovery, targeting an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America, the same approach used on recent flights.
September 22 is SpaceX’s own target, not a locked date. Starship’s schedule has slipped before over hardware readiness and FAA sign off, and the company has said as much in its own mission notes. But the plan itself represents the clearest marker yet that Starship is moving from a suborbital test program into something meant to carry paying payloads and, eventually, people.
News
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
SpaceX filed with the FCC for Starship Flight 14, its first true orbital launch attempt.
SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to fly Starlink terminals during Starship’s fourteenth flight test, and the filing lays out a genuine trip to orbit, something the program has never attempted.
Every Starship flight so far, including Flight 13’s successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean on July 24, has flown a suborbital arc that ends with the ship reentering the atmosphere within the same hour it launches. The FCC paperwork describes a mission profile built around an actual orbital insertion instead.
The payload is the other half of the story. Flight 13 carried 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, but because that mission never reached orbit, the satellites reentered along with the ship rather than joining the constellation, something Teslarati covered in detail after SpaceX released footage shot from one of those satellites as it drifted away from Starship in space. Flight 14 is designed to close that gap. If the orbital insertion holds, the roughly 20 V3 satellites onboard would separate into an operational orbit and could eventually go into service, each one rated for about 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity by SpaceX’s own account.
SpaceX announces new Starbase for ‘thousands of Starship launches annually’
Elon Musk first flagged the orbital attempt during SpaceX’s August 4 earnings call, the company’s first as a public entity following its June IPO under the ticker SPCX. He also floated catching the ship with the Starbase tower on the same flight, an idea he walked back on August 20, saying the catch attempt would more likely come “in a few months,” as Teslarati reported at the time. Flight 14 will instead target a splashdown for the ship in the Indian Ocean, the same recovery method used since Flight 12.
Hardware has been catching up to the ambition. Booster 21 completed a full 33-engine static fire on August 28, and Ship 41 finished its own six-engine test the week before. An airspace briefing circulated to pilots on August 20 listed September 15 as the target date, later than the end of August window Musk mentioned on the earnings call, though SpaceX has not confirmed a launch date publicly and Starship schedules routinely slip while hardware and FAA paperwork line up.
The FCC filing itself does not guarantee a launch date. It covers communications authority, and not flight readiness, considering SpaceX still needs Ship 41 fully stacked and cleared by the FAA before Flight 14 can fly. But the filing is a real marker of intent and it puts a specific regulatory process behind what had so far only been Musk’s word on the earnings call.
Elon Musk’s next Uranium in Uranus merch is Boring Company’s weirdest tease yet
NASA taps SpaceX for more astronaut missions as Boeing Starliner remains grounded
