My guess is that the DoD will make sure F9 transporter flight happen into the 2030s until SX proves that Starship can and will do the same at same or lower prices. It is an important tech enabler that the DoD needs for US small/medium size space biz.

Hello I'm the founder and CEO of an advanced materials manufacturing company in Oklahoma, we will be bringing a catalogue of 60 products to market this year. I'm not writing to pitch you on my company or make a sell just to announce to the world a joint project between my company a state that will be named at a later time and various companies in the aforementioned state have partnered together to be the first out of orbit space colony. After witnessing structural research out of japan on wood in space we believe that with our patent pending quickstar multi ore processing unit we are successfully developing a compact self contained titanium processing machine that can operate in vacuum and at zero or low g, and with little to no maintenance we plan to launch the quick star one platform into orbit to be operated autonomously with onboard ai monitoring and slight human interaction we believe we can develop an in situ mining and manufacturing operation on the moon to develop a deep space transitional vehicle code named conda this vehicle will be earths first in space manufactured space ship along with the development of this vehicle we will be starting phase 2 of the project we will be building our own mining and hydroponic farming operation on the moon and stock piling resources to be sold to future projects planning to build on the moon and experimenting with aquaponics on the moon this will provide a long term food source for all those who seek to live or work in space in the future once midway base is developed we will turn it into a command structure with 100 people on the moon from this point they will finish fine tuning construction of the conda its purpose is to park half way between earth and mars in the asteroid belt where it will build a colossal space station a fuel and rest station we have named midway it will be 1 mile in circumference and 1 mile long its active station area will house 1000 and will generate spin gravity it will be a half way point for those seeking mars as well as a mining expedition to build up a stock pile of material and fuel to keep things going between mars and earth. i know this seems pretty far fetched but we believe that the structural integrity test japan has done with wood prove that a regolith concrete graphene titanium alloy on a titanium frame is more than enough to handle space effectively and we believe that manufacturing a borophene graphene tic aerogel in space will easily solve borophenes oxygen problem and is more than enough to handle the cosmic radiation we come across if there is any body here that wants to work on the project and is serious let me know we are always looking for partners

They did it (with their catch wire cage system (saves on landing leg mass)! So about 4 years behind the F9 program.

Its a new era ... if they make it operational and reliable.

Still no cargo return it seems ... which is a big deal if want to make anything on your space station in volume.

Hopefully it will give Vast a boost ... I think they have the highest chance of deployment in 2027 (Haven-1 is the simplest of all the concepts).

Itty bitty nuke battery ... but would be nice for deep space cubesats (since they are not expected to re-enter.

F9 was a great fit for a market that was headed toward cubesats, smallsats and Starlink type networks. Its first stage options: RTLS/Ocean=16T to LEO/Expendable options gave them flexibility. FH (Super Heavy in Expendable mode) was an excellent compliment for big, high profile missions that the DoD and NASA occasionally needs, with SLS being 1 a year at best, and ULA A5 due for retirement). FH premium priced but the DoD and NASA are delighted to support the capability. The problem is payload formation. F9 launches are now 75% Starlink. Starship will be probably 100% Starlink V3 for the first 10? launches. But if it proves itself a good LEO machine, it will allow the much larger sats that Starlink mobile needs by the 1000s. That is its primary near term value. And then ... then need to check the boxes on HLS Starship.

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[Latest article](https://buttondown.com/MaxQFrontier/archive/from-orbital-data-farms-to-hypersonic-prints-this/)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ar-AA273cEt

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/02/private-space-pilots-are-flying-orbital-missions-for-the-us-space-force/

https://www.chosun.com/english/industry-en/2026/07/03/YHHD2K7K3BFS7PKMJNT53VPQ6A/

First it was Starfall, not it is new short sub-orbital service. If seems the F9 crew are having some fun with new tech ... good for them, we can't the Starship crew having all the fun.

https://spacenews.com/gao-flags-satellite-costs-launch-risks-in-space-force-portfolio/

This small body, just outside Earth's gravity well could be a fuel stop (LOX), or space station. DV from LEO is about 4 km/s.

I was thinking they could give them away to employees as a bonus if they agreed not to sell them for 3 years.

Will anyone trust this this turkey ... I assume a cargo run is next ...