SpaceX's new venture, Starfall, which focuses on retrieving products and various payloads from Earth's orbit, has finalized a mission agreement with integrator Space Cargo, marking it as the first client, according to the company's CEO Nicolas Gaume.
Space Cargo plans to conduct an orbital reentry flight in 2028 during the inaugural commercial mission of Starship, which will release SpaceX's Starfall - a disc-shaped capsule intended for transporting materials on brief journeys through orbit and returning to Earth.
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Despatched on Falcon 9 and later Starship, Starfall features an aluminum casing shielded by a 10-foot (3-m) -wide heatshield, which SpaceX provides to clients interested in developing products or conducting research in the microgravity environment of space.
Luxembourg's Space Cargo will install its "BentoBox" system in the Starfall capsule, establishing itself as an integrator within the SpaceX program while aiming to secure additional missions in the future, according to CEO Gaume.
The container could hold up to 1 ton of various payloads from Space Cargo's customers who signed on for the mission, enabling them to withstand reentry and be safely brought back to Earth for commercial purposes.
The Space Cargo agreement marks the initial recognized client for SpaceX's Starfall initiative, which rapidly surfaced earlier this year prior to showcasing a capsule mission in June. The main feature of the product is its heatshield, a commercialized version of SpaceX's expertise in transporting its larger Dragon capsules between Earth and space primarily for NASA.
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The initial BentoBox on a Starfall capsule will be included in the payloads for SpaceX's first commercial mission using Starship, the massive next-generation rocket that SpaceX is currently developing, Gaume stated. SpaceX, which did not reply to a request for comment, has not announced when Starship will conduct its initial commercial flight.
The new industry of bringing payloads back from space is advantageous for clients like pharmaceutical companies that depend on the microgravity environment for research and manufacturing, achieving higher purities that cannot be reached under Earth's gravity.
NASA has stated that producing products like fiber optic cables in space offers distinct advantages, as their quality is enhanced when made in microgravity aboard the International Space Station. According to the company, almost half of Space Cargo's prospective customers for its inaugural Starfall mission are from the life sciences and biotechnology industries.
The Starfall initiative enters a burgeoning sector of capsule reentry services, as SpaceX contends with competition from smaller firms like Varda Space, based in California, whose main capsule has completed 6 flights and lands in an Australian desert. The Pentagon views capsule reentry missions, which need to maneuver aerodynamically through the intense hypersonic temperatures of atmospheric reentry, as beneficial for research and testing related to hypersonic weapons and as possible target practice for its Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
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Gaume stated that operating its BentoBox with Starship and Starfall guarantees a quick succession of missions as SpaceX aims for an unmatched Starship launch frequency once the rocket completes its development. BentoBox intends to collaborate with other capsules, including the Phoenix vehicle from German startup ATMOS Space Cargo and the Space Rider from the European Space Agency.
Starship is approaching regular flights, but its progress has been significantly delayed by years. Its upcoming test launch sometime this year, the 14th of 2023, will aim to place its initial SpaceX-manufactured Starlink satellites into orbit, succeeded by more frequent in-house satellite missions that have started to take over SpaceX's timetable.
The goal of 2028 for Starship's inaugural commercial mission indicates that many of the rocket's initial flights in 2027 will be for SpaceX's Starlink satellite division, and potentially for its Starmind initiative aimed at deploying AI data centers in space if those satellites are prepared on schedule.