Starship is getting ready to make history in Florida, and SpaceX is preparing for an entirely new era of launch operations SpaceX is entering a six-week gap between Falcon 9 launches from Cape Canaveral as teams focus on preparing Starship for its first launch from Kennedy Space Center SpaceX VP of Launch Kiko Dontchev put it perfectly: "If you haven't seen a signal that it's 'game time' on Starship, that's it" And Starship's launch infrastructure at Pad 39A is now effectively complete, with Gigabay getting its doors next Here's what SpaceX is planning for its first Florida mission: • Starship launches from Pad 39A, the same historic launchpad that sent Apollo 11 to the Moon • Super Heavy returns to Pad 39A for an attempted catch by the launch tower's giant chopstick arms • Starship spends approximately 8–9 hours in orbit, circling Earth about six times while deploying payloads • The spacecraft then returns to Earth, targeting a landing at Starbase, Texas • Boosters and ships will be manufactured in Texas, transported by barge to Florida, and prepared for launch at SpaceX's massive Gigabay facility A gigantic fully reusable rocket launches from Florida, its booster returns directly to the launch tower, and the spacecraft flies around Earth multiple times before landing all the way back in Texas All 14 Starship flights so far have launched from Starbase, Texas Now SpaceX is preparing to expand Starship operations to an entirely new coast, with the first Florida launch targeted by the end of the year Starship's next chapter is going to be even more extraordinary