This Week in Space: Starship operations could return to Florida

New photos and planning documents show potential Starship-sized expansions at SpaceX‘s Roberts Road facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The company is also planning four Falcon 9 launches this week. Meanwhile, its closest thing to a near-term competitor, Blue Origin, is gearing up to debut its New Glenn rocket.

This week’s launches

• November 4 (Monday)
  • MHI | H3-22S | Kirameki 3 | 1:48 A.M. EST
    • LA-Y2, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
  • Roscosmos | Soyuz 2.1b | Ionosfera-M n°1 & 2 | 6:18 P.M. EST
    • Site 1S, Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | CRS-31 | 9:29 P.M. EST
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-10 | 11:46 P.M. PST
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• November 5 (Tuesday)
  • Rocket Lab | Electron | Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes | 5:30 A.M. EST
    • LC-1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-77 | 4:05 P.M. EST
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• November 6 (Wednesday)
  • CAS Space | Kinetica 1 | Unknown Payload | 2:15 P.M. EST
    • Site 130, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
• November 7 (Thursday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-69 | 5:46 P.M. EST
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• November 8 (Friday)
  • CASC | Long March 2C | Unknown Payload | 10:40 P.M. EST
    • SLS-2, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China

In the news…

Space Force opens on-ramp for potential Phase 3 Lane 1 launch providers, which could give smaller companies the opportunity to bid on government missions. However, the only potential player is Rocket Lab with its Neutron rocket, if it can get it ready for its first launch in mid-2025, a Space Force requirement. [SpaceNews]

Blue Origin has rolled out its first flight New Glenn rocket to its launch pad ahead of a potential December launch. The rocket has just received its seven BE-4 engines, and we expect a static fire soon before potentially being cleared to fly by the FAA later this month. [NASASpaceflight]

ULA is still investigating a fairing debris issue over a year after it was first publicly seen. During the SilentBarker launch last year, a large amount of debris was seen coming from the Atlas V fairing during deployment. While the DoD has said the mission was a success, debris from the fairing during separation is not something you want to see, especially when you’re launching some of the world’s most expensive and sensitive payloads. [ArsTechnica]

A NASA advisory panel told the agency and SpaceX it needs to “maintain focus” after three incidents leading to Falcon 9 groundings this year. While no major concerns about NASA’s commercial operations were raised, it was stated that now might be a good time to remember that space is unforgiving and small mistakes could lead to the loss of a payload or even a crew. [SpaceNews]

Starship operations could return to Florida

In aerial photos captured by NASASpaceflight, it looks like SpaceX is setting the stage to bring Starship operations back to Florida for a third time.

A new tent was seen in the early stages of construction at the company’s Roberts Road facility at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX has historically used tents for early production of Starship materials, most famously at Starbase, where the largest tents are just now being replaced with a formal factory, dubbed “Starfactory.”

Nearby the new tent, the bases used for Starship launch tower construction are back in their original places after a short trip to Starbase. While the tower was to be assembled in Texas, SpaceX built the tower segments for Starbase’s second pad at Robert’s Road before barging them over to Brownsville. This could mean SpaceX is preparing to begin building LC-39A‘s second Starship tower after its first has lain dormant for a few years now.

The plan has always been to eventually launch Starship out of Florida. There is only so much space and so many launches SpaceX will be able to perform out of Starbase, so a second base of operations in Florida only makes sense. The company was waiting to bring back Starship operations to the Cape until the majority of the vehicle’s development was complete.

With several successful launches complete and now a successful catch, it could mean a Starship launch from Florida is more likely. Although there is still a lot to be done both at Robert’s Road and LC-39A before a launch can take place. The company hasn’t yet finished Starbase’s second pad, and it will likely want to get its feet wet with its new design before building a third or fourth pad.

Robert’s Road expansion

SpaceX is also planning a large expansion of its Roberts Road facility. Currently, the launch operator has two large facilities called HangarX and HangarX2 that handle Falcon 9 booster refurbishment, launch operations, and Starship heat shield manufacturing.

If SpaceX is to launch Starships from Florida in the near future, work will need to begin now to get all the needed facilities completed to begin construction. This would mean room for a formal Starfactory, High Bays (or what some call Mega Bays), and storage, office, and operation buildings.

Starbase has grown to the size of a small city; you can expect to see a similarly sized facility at Kennedy Space Center to support a similar launch cadence in support of NASA’s Artemis Program.