It’s too early to talk about retirement, but astute observers of the space industry have noticed that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket isn’t launching as often as it used to.
This reduction has been minor so far, and it does not indicate any problems with SpaceX or the Falcon 9. Rather, it’s a manifestation of SpaceX’s desire to shift focus to the larger Starship rocket, which allows for what the company wants to do in space: Landing on the moon and Mars, orbital data centersand next generation Starlink.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX had 165 Falcon 9 launches (not including Falcon Heavy missions) last year, which equates to 134 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights in 2024 and 96 Falcon flights in 2023. Gwynne Shotwell Time said earlier this year. “This year we will still start a lot, but not as much,” he said. “Then we will stop our launches as Starship comes online.”
Let off the gas
We’re starting to see what the long, slow tail will look like. The changes are most visible at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where SpaceX launches most of its rockets. Until last December, SpaceX regularly launched Falcon 9s from two pads on Florida’s Space Coast.— one at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and another a few miles south on military property at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX is repurposing a site at Kennedy known as Launch Complex-39A to launch Starships. The LC-39A remains out of rotation for Falcon 9 launches, although it is available for occasional flights by the more powerful tri-core Falcon Heavy. SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy in a year and a half from the LC-39A last week, and several more Falcon Heavy flights are slated for later this year.
At SpaceX’s oldest launch site, Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral, activity is also winding down. Last month, SpaceX decommissioned one of its two Florida-based offshore landing platforms from SpaceX’s South Texas factory to Florida for future use as carriers for Starships and Super Heavy boosters. SpaceX is building a second Starship factory at Kennedy Space Center, but officials want to start Starship flights from Florida before the factory is up and running.
