SpaceX's Falcon 9 Will Be Killed Off - Deep Space Updates September 18th
Watch the video on YouTube: SpaceX's Falcon 9 Will Be Killed Off - Deep Space Updates September 18thVideo from the channel Scott Manley about Falcon 9, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 37:52. Language: English. Video type: News.
What's being announced
Scott Manley reviews the space news from the first half of September 2026. The main story is that SpaceX is moving away from the Falcon 9. Companies trying to book launches beyond 2028 are being told there's no interest in flying them on this rocket, and the shared Transporter and Bandwagon missions could disappear from that date onward. Exolaunch and another rideshare company have bought dedicated Falcon 9 launches to organize their own missions.
Context
The launch roundup includes several Falcon 9 flights from Vandenberg with Starlink and Space Force payloads, plus another from SLC-40 in Florida with the last three O3b mPOWER satellites for SES. It also covers the debut of Galactic Energy's Pallas-1, although no orbital data has been published. It highlights the success of Isar Aerospace's Spectrum from Andøya, the first propane-fueled rocket to reach orbit, and Vega C's first dual mission with Sentinel-3C and FLEX. Starship's flight 14, delayed again, will be orbital: it will circle Earth six times in about nine hours and deploy operational Starlink satellites. It won't attempt to recover either the booster or the ship by catch. Other topics include ESA's €760 million contract with The Exploration Company for the reusable Nyx cargo capsule, Rocket Lab's challenge to Blue Origin's award for the Mars telecommunications orbiter, and a new 222-metre lunar crater detected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
What it means
According to the video's analysis, as Starlink shifts to Starship, the Falcon 9 program's fixed costs get spread across fewer launches, so the price per mission tends to rise, making it worthwhile for SpaceX to retire the rocket. Dragon will keep operating, and NASA is paying Boeing to certify Starliner on another launcher, Vulcan or New Glenn. Avio, Rocket Lab, Stoke, Firefly and Isar could pick up part of the market SpaceX leaves behind.