An illustration of SpaceX’s Starfall capsule included in an FAA environmental assessment. Credit: FAA
DUBLIN — Federal Aviation Administration documents have provided new details about a SpaceX project to develop and test reentry vehicles that could be used to support in-space manufacturing projects.
The FAA on May 15 issued an environmental assessment for test flights of Starfall, an uncrewed reentry vehicle. The FAA also issued a record of decision approving those test flights, concluding that they would not have any significant environmental impacts. The agency did not publicize the findings until it sent out an “FAA Space Update” on May 29.
The documents provide insights into Starfall, which SpaceX has not publicly discussed. Bloomberg first reported on the project last July, describing it as an in-space manufacturing program using capsules that would perform microgravity research and development, then return to Earth.
The FAA documents describe Starfall as serving both in-space manufacturing and point-to-point cargo delivery. The capsules could serve as a “proliferated successor” to the International Space Station to support “a self-sustaining manufacturing economy in space,” the documents state.
