Update July 5, 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of Starlink satellites.
Two semiconductor manufacturing test beds hitched a suborbital ride on the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launched another batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral shortly after sunrise on Sunday.
The launch of the Starlink 10-50 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred at 6:50 a.m. EDT (1050 UTC). Space Force meteorologists have predicted an 85 percent chance of favorable weather for the launch.
In addition to boosting 29 satellites for SpaceX’s Internet service, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster carried two manufacturing pods for Washington, D.C.-based startup Bexar Space Industries on an eight-minute, 19-second trip to space and back.
In October 2025, the company revealed that it had booked 12 Falcon 9 flights to test space-based semiconductor substrate manufacturing plants, which it calls ‘fabships’.
Announcing its plans, Besser said it would use the vacuum of space to produce ultra-pure substrates and precursor materials for semiconductors needed for electronic devices.
“We are reaching the limits of what can be built on Earth. AI data centers are pushing up against power and cooling limits, silicon is nearing its physical edge, and fabrication plants can’t achieve vacuum or produce next-generation materials to keep up with demand,” Ashley Pilipizin, founder and CEO of Basexer, said in a statement last year.
The workhorse SpaceX booster flies above the 100-kilometer-high Karman Line, considered the boundary of space, after releasing the second stage, which carries the rocket’s payload into orbit.
After stage separation, the first-stage booster continues upward. On Starlink missions, the first stage booster typically reaches an altitude of about 115 kilometers before the pull of gravity pulls it back to Earth and lands on a drone ship in the ocean.
Bexar says these short-duration, sub-orbital flights are ideal for fine-tuning its manufacturing process with its rapid turnaround. The test-bed fabships, called the ‘Clipper class’, are the size of a microwave oven.
“With regular coordination of launch and re-entry missions, we can now iterate faster than ever before – turning space into a vital extension of America’s semiconductor supply chain,” said Pilipizin, who previously worked at OpenAI in its early days.
In an interview on the CNBC podcast ‘Manifest Space,’ Pilipizin said the initial Clipper class fabships will carry a variety of terrestrial-made semiconductor wafers to see how they hold up against the rigors of rocket launch and reentry.
“You can think of it like the ultimate egg drop challenge,” she said. “We want to make sure that we can not only get the wafers into space, do our manufacturing, but also that we are able to successfully bring the wafers back without any kind of cracks or damage.”
BaseXer has received backing from graphics and AI chip maker Nvidia’s Inception program for startups and lists SpaceX as one of its investors.
The company originally planned to begin fabship testing on the Falcon 9 before the end of 2025.
Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch will be SpaceX’s 62nd Starlink delivery mission of the year as it continues expanding its Internet from space service. The rocket’s second stage is scheduled to deploy a stack of 29 V2 mini Starlink satellites one hour, three minutes and 31 seconds after launch.
