Falcon 9

SpaceX scrubbed the originally scheduled 2024-06-12 Falcon 9 Starlink launch and rolled it over to 2024-06-13 before another scrub delayed the attempt toward 2024-06-14.

If the price of a Falcon 9 rocket were $20 million instead of $67 million, operating data centers in orbit would be economically viable.

SpaceX’s next rocket is expected to have launch costs per kilogram to low Earth orbit that are approximately 10% of those of the current Falcon 9.

One Falcon 9 launch for $67 million could transport 16 racks of Nvidia's latest SuperPOD for a combined performance of 23 exaflops.

Analyst assumptions used to model Starlink profitability imply a Starlink Capex per launch below $50 million, which in turn implies a full Falcon 9 launch cost below $30,000,000.

On Tuesday, 2024-06-04 at 7:16 p.m. ET, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.

The 2024-06-04 Falcon 9 launch occurred from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Space Pioneer described Tianlong-3 as comparable to Falcon 9 in launch capability and planning a reusable first stage.

SpaceX performed 14 Falcon 9 launches in May 2024.

The Falcon 9 first stage used for the EarthCARE launch was making its seventh flight and had previously supported Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, and two Starlink missions.

Starlink celebrated its fifth birthday with a Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on May 23, placing 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.

Space Pioneer is developing the Tianlong-3 kerolox launcher with plans for a reusable first stage and launch capability comparable to Falcon 9.

A Falcon 9 launched the Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) spacecraft on 2024-05-28.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched the ESA and JAXA EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) mission on Tuesday, 2024-05-28 at 3:10 p.m. PDT from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 6:20 p.m. Eastern.

The first dedicated launch for Starlink occurred nearly five years earlier with the Falcon 9 lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 and launching 60 Starlink satellites.

EarthCARE was moved to Europe’s Vega C before ESA decided in June of the previous year to launch it on a Falcon 9 due to delays returning Vega C to flight and required payload fairing modifications.

EarthCARE is the second ESA-led mission to launch on a Falcon 9 after the Euclid space telescope launched in July of the previous year.

The welding samples from ThinkOrbital’s 2024-05-06 experiment returned to Earth on the Falcon 9 booster, were recovered, and are being analyzed by NASA and European Space Agency experts to assess microgravity effects.