It’s another end of an era for SpaceX, as one of its drone ships returns to Port Canaveral with a Falcon 9 booster for a final time — all in support of the next big rocket, Starship.
The “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship returned with the first stage booster from the April 21 launch of the GPS III mission, sailing into Port Canaveral early Thursday, April 23. According to SpaceX, it will be the last time this specific drone ship carries a Falcon 9 booster. Now it will prepare to support Starship operations.
While still only launching from Texas, SpaceX’s massive Starship is expected to launch from Florida in the near future. The launch site at Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A is almost complete and work at Launch Complex 37 in Cape Canaveral is underway
With only one drone ship now in operation, the question arose: how will SpaceX will support its frequent Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, sometimes totaling two per week? For reference, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 made up 101 out of the 109 launches out of Florida in 2025.
Right now the company only has Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, having paused Falcon 9 launches from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A earlier this year. While Pad 39A will support the Falcon Heavy rocket, it is also poised to be the first launch site for Starship out of Florida.
“Just Read the Instructions” supported 156 Falcon 9 first stage booster landings out at sea. SpaceX has been landing its boosters on drone ships since late 2015 and at the Cape Canaveral landing zones since 2016.
“With 39A becoming a primarily Falcon Heavy and Starship pad, we don’t actually need two operational droneships on the east coast to maintain our Falcon manifest,” SpaceX VP of Launch Kiko Dontchev wrote on X. “Think of pads/drone ships like airplane runways where you need a landing runway for each takeoff runway (ideally they are the same runway I.e. starship).”
For now, the company’s other drone ship, “A Shortfall of Gravitas”, will support the landings from Florida Falcon 9 launches. Dontchev said that this drone ship can support a four-day launch cycle and SpaceX can also return the first stage boosters to the Cape Canaveral landing sites. When the boosters return to land, that creates a sonic boom, suggesting Brevard may be experiencing more of those in the future.
This already seen with SpaceX’s launches out of Vandenberg, California. West Coast launches utilize both the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship as well as a coastal landing zone.
Starship launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida for NASA
With SpaceX poised to launch the latest version of its massive Starship launch system on another test flight from Texas, the company is preparing to bring it to Florida by the end of the year. The upcoming Version 3 (V3) of Starship is the model poised to launch from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A.
SpaceX will use another new drone ship titled “You’ll Thank Me Later” and “Just Read the Instructions” to transport Super Heavy booster and Starships from Starbase, Texas to Cape Canaveral.
Most notably, it is Starship/Super Heavy which has been tapped by NASA to support its Artemis return to the moon. SpaceX will provide the Starship Human Landings System (HLS), which will alternate Artemis missions with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark II lander.
SpaceX’s Starship HLS will launch on Starship’s Super Heavy, while Blue Origin’s Mark II will launch on its New Glenn rocket.
Neither company has launched its landers yet, though.
Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX drone ship sees last Falcon 9 landing, shifts to Starship support
Reporting by Brooke Edwards, Florida Today / Florida Today
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