When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Credit: NASASpaceX’s newest spaceflight tech is about to launch to the final frontier for the first time.The company’s Starfall capsule is set for its debut mission, following SpaceX’s application with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for two reentry vehicle landings. The mission is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday (June 23), during a one-hour launch window that opens at 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 GMT).AdvertisementAdvertisementYou can watch the action live via SpaceX, which will stream it live starting about 10 minutes before liftoff.Starfall is a cargo transportation vehicle designed to carry payloads to low Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and also return materials safely back to Earth. The platform isn’t designed to fly human passengers; it’s geared toward the support of research or other payloads that require retrieval after a stint in space, such as pharmaceuticals and other products of orbital manufacturing.The concept has already been put into practice by Varda Space, which has landed five of its 3-foot-wide (0.9 meters), roughly 650-pound (300 kilograms) conical “W-series” capsules to date, one of which returned a payload for the U.S. Air Force after more than eight weeks on orbit. Starfall is more than three times as large, measuring 10 feet (3.1 m) across and 2.5 feet (0.75 m) tall. The SpaceX vehicle can carry up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) of payload.Starfall has two primary sections, which separate after reentry: a top plate for payload storage and attitude control components, and a carbon fiber heat shield that stores compressed gas to power attitude control maneuvers needed for precise reentries and landings, heat shield jettison and parachute deployment, according to …
