Starfall Demo Flies After the Sun Rises

Cape Canaveral S.F.S. FL. – Just minutes after a hazy and partly cloudy sunrise this morning, 6/23/2026 a Falcon 9 rocket on its 29th flight took to the skies with the Starfall Demo payload.  Liftoff came at 6:53 AM EDT from LC-40 and minutes later, the booster made a successful landing near the Bahamas on the recovery ship, “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.

The Starfall Demo mission is to test a new concept in recoverable “disks” that look generally like a large hockey puck.  Slightly less than 1 x 10 feet, these disks can contain science and other payloads up to an estimated 2,000 pounds for micro gravity research and then can de-orbit at a predetermined location and then parachute to a touchdown for recovery.  

It is believed that this new system is first being tested on the Falcon 9 before testing begins on the SpaceX Starship.

Story By:  Michael Howard – We Report Space

Launch Image By: Michael Seeley – We Report Space