As SpaceX prepares to debut Starship at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, the company has announced it is pausing launches in Florida for at least six weeks.
SpaceX’s Vice President of Launch, Kiko Dontchev, confirmed the reports and said the pause will allow crews to prep infrastructure and the launch pads for upcoming Starship missions from the bases.
This is not a big surprise given SpaceX has been planning the eventual Starship expansion to both Cape Canaveral Space Force Base and the Kennedy Space Center.
At the Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX will use launch pad 39A for Starship missions. The company needs to install the doors at Gigabay and make a few last-minute changes at the pad.
At Cape Canaveral, work is nearly done on Space Launch Complex 37 to prep for Starship, but some last-minute tweaks are expected.
Unlike the Falcon 9 rockets, which have been transported by semi-trucks to Florida from the assembly facility in Texas. For the Starship missions, SpaceX plans to transport the boosters and ships aboard the You’ll Thank Me Later, a SpaceX barge, and deliver the full package by sea.
SpaceX confirmed that Falcon 9 launches will continue at its other launch sites at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. However, the next mission out of Florida has no confirmed date yet.
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