The Federal Aviation Administration, in a move that can only be described as 'burying the lede in a routine environmental assessment,' has revealed new details about a SpaceX project called Starfall. The FAA issued the assessment on May 15 and a record of decision approving test flights, concluding that the tests would not significantly harm the environment. It then waited until May 29 to actually tell anyone about it, because nothing says 'transparency' like a two-week delay.
The documents describe Starfall as an uncrewed reentry vehicle designed to support in-space manufacturing and point-to-point cargo delivery. Think of it as a pizza delivery drone, but for microgravity, and the pizza is industrial materials. According to the FAA, SpaceX envisions Starfall as a 'proliferated successor' to the International Space Station, helping to create 'a self-sustaining manufacturing economy in space.' Because nothing says 'self-sustaining' like needing a massive rocket company to launch your supplies.
The approved test flights involve two reentries of Starfall capsules into the Pacific Ocean, about 1,300 kilometers off the coasts of California and Mexico. The capsules are disk-shaped, 0.75 meters tall and 3.1 meters in diameter - basically a flying saucer that's slightly taller than a garden gnome. They have cold-gas attitude control thrusters but no ability to deorbit on their own, so they're essentially very expensive frisbees that need a ride home.
The vehicle consists of a top plate (1,400 kilograms, partially wrapped in mystery thermal protection material) and a heat shield (700 kilograms, carbon-fiber, containing nitrogen gas bottles). It lands using a single main parachute, with the heat shield jettisoned before splashdown. SpaceX will recover all elements by boat, because leaving expensive space hardware in the ocean is bad for business.
The environmental assessment doesn't specify when the test flights will happen, but it's clear SpaceX sees these as prototypes for mass-producible spacecraft capable of carrying up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo. This puts SpaceX in the awkward position of competing with companies that rely on it for launch services, such as Varda Space Industries (which has flown six W-series spacecraft on SpaceX missions), Inversion (whose Ray spacecraft had technical issues on a 2025 rideshare), and Atmos Space Cargo (which flew its first reentry vehicle on a SpaceX mission in 2025). Other hopefuls include Catalyx Space, Lux Aeterna, and Reditus Space, all planning test flights through next year - and all presumably hoping SpaceX doesn't decide to undercut them on delivery fees.