{"id":43797,"date":"2025-09-04T20:17:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/lull-in-falcon-heavy-missions-opens-window-for-spacex-to-build-new-landing-pads\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:17:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:17:27","slug":"lull-in-falcon-heavy-missions-opens-window-for-spacex-to-build-new-landing-pads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/lull-in-falcon-heavy-missions-opens-window-for-spacex-to-build-new-landing-pads\/","title":{"rendered":"Lull in Falcon Heavy missions opens window for SpaceX to build new landing pads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember the first time you saw a SpaceX rocket nail a bullseye landing after hurtling back from space? How about the first time two boosters landed side by side, punctuating the inaugural launch of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket with thrilling synchrony?<\/p>\n

Some of SpaceX\u2019s most defining moments happened on a piece of beachfront property at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is where SpaceX first landed a reusable Falcon 9 booster coming back from space and, a few years later, landed two boosters side by side.<\/p>\n

In all, SpaceX has landed 66 Falcon boosters at Landing Zones 1 and 2 since recovering the first Falcon 9 booster on December 21, 2015. Now, SpaceX is preparing to hand the landing zones back to the US Space Force, which owns the property and has reallocated the real estate to two startup launch companies.<\/p>\n

SpaceX plans to build two landing zones for Falcon rockets next to the company\u2019s existing launch pads in Florida, aligning with a recent Space Force policy to co-locate launch and landing sites on the same property.<\/p>\n

The Space Force says co-located launch and landing pads will free up room for the spaceport to host more launch companies and shrink the area around the base that safety authorities must evacuate for each mission. Ultimately, this will reduce interruptions and scheduling conflicts between SpaceX and other launch providers at the Cape Canaveral spaceport.<\/p>\n

Staying power<\/h2>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a record of decision on Wednesday approving SpaceX\u2019s plan to more than double the number of Falcon 9 launches from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), the busiest of the company\u2019s four operational launch pads. The FAA concluded that the proposed launch rate \u201cwould not significantly impact the quality of the human environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The environmental review paves the way for SpaceX to launch up to 120 Falcon 9 rockets per year from SLC-40, an increase from 50 launches covered in a previous FAA review in 2020. Since then, the FAA has issued SpaceX temporary approval to go beyond 50 launches from SLC-40. For example, SpaceX launched 62 of its overall 132 Falcon 9 flights last year from SLC-40.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s goal for this year is 170 Falcon 9 launches, and the company is on pace to come close to this target. Most Falcon 9 launches carry SpaceX\u2019s own Starlink broadband satellites into orbit. The FAA\u2019s environmental approval opens the door for more flights from SpaceX\u2019s busiest launch pad.<\/p>\n

But launch pad availability is not the only hurdle limiting how many Falcon 9 flights can take off in a year. There\u2019s also the rate of production for Falcon 9 upper stages, which are new on each flight, and the time it takes for each vessel in SpaceX\u2019s fleet of drone ships (one in California, two in Florida) to return to port with a recovered booster and redeploy back to sea again for the next mission. SpaceX lands Falcon 9 boosters on offshore drone ships after most of its launches and only brings the rocket back to an onshore landing on missions carrying lighter payloads to orbit.<\/p>\n

When a Falcon 9 booster does return to landing on land, it targets one of SpaceX\u2019s recovery zones at military-run spaceports in Florida and California. SpaceX\u2019s landing zone at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is close to the Falcon 9 launch pad there.<\/p>\n

The Space Force wants SpaceX, and potentially other future reusable rocket companies, to replicate the side-by-side launch and landing pads at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

To do that, the FAA also gave the green light Wednesday for SpaceX to construct and operate a new rocket landing zone at SLC-40 and conduct up to 34 first-stage booster landings there each year. The landing zone will consist of a 280-foot diameter concrete pad surrounded by a 60-foot-wide gravel apron. The landing zone\u2019s broadest diameter, including the apron, will measure 400 feet.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The location of SpaceX\u2019s new rocket landing pad is shown with the red circle, approximately 1,000 feet northeast of the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s launch pad at Space Launch Complex-40.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Google Maps\/Ars Technica<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

SpaceX is in an earlier phase of planning for a Falcon landing pad at historic Launch Complex-39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, just a few miles north of SLC-40. SpaceX uses LC-39A as a launch pad for most Falcon 9 crew launches, all Falcon Heavy missions, and, in the future, flights of the company\u2019s gigantic next-generation rocket, Starship. SpaceX foresees Starship as a replacement for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, but the company\u2019s continuing investment in Falcon-related infrastructure shows the workhorse rocket will stick around for a while.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

The new landing locations at SLC-40 and LC-39A will replace Landing Zones 1 and 2, nearly 10 miles to the south. SpaceX landed its last rocket at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) last month but will continue using Landing Zone 2 for now. Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of build and flight reliability, told reporters in July that the company is working with the Space Force and NASA to determine the \u201cright time\u201d to move out of Landing Zone 2.<\/p>\n

A break in launches of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket makes this a good time to make the transition. Falcon Heavy rockets have two side boosters, both of which typically return to Landing Zones 1 and 2 at the same time. These kinds of double rocket landings won\u2019t be possible again until SpaceX activates the new landing pad at SLC-40.<\/p>\n

SpaceX doesn\u2019t have any Falcon Heavy launches on its schedule until the second half of 2026 at the earliest. That should provide ample time to get a new landing site up and running at SLC-40, and maybe LC-39A, too.<\/p>\n

The Space Force reallocated the land around LZs-1 and 2 to a pair of small rocket companies in 2023. The two companies, Vaya Space and Phantom Space, will share the property, originally known as Launch Complex-13 when it was used for Atlas rocket launches from 1958 until 1978.<\/p>\n

Vaya and Phantom have not announced when they might start building their launch facilities. Neither company has attempted to launch an orbital-class rocket before, but both claim they will do so in 2026 or 2027.<\/p>\n

Vaya and Phantom are operating on limited budgets compared to other rocket startups that have reached the launch pad. Each company has raised less than $50 million, well short of the fundraising achievements of companies like Isar Aerospace of Germany, Australia\u2019s Gilmour Space, and Japan\u2019s Space One, all of which recently tried\u2014and failed\u2014to send their first rockets into orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember the first time you saw a SpaceX rocket nail a bullseye landing after hurtling back from space? How about the first time two boosters landed side by side, punctuating the inaugural launch of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket with thrilling synchrony? Some of SpaceX\u2019s most defining moments happened on a piece of beachfront property at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}