SpaceX announces end of crewed launches from Kennedy Space Center 39A
By Brooke Edwards, Florida Today - February 6, 2026
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Key Points
- Future SpaceX Dragon crewed missions will launch from Space Launch Complex 40.
- The change allows Pad 39A to be dedicated to Falcon Heavy and future Starship launches.
- Pad 39A has a historic legacy, having launched Apollo and Space Shuttle missions.
“For our manifest going forward, we’re planning to launch most of our Falcon 9 launches off of Space Launch Complex 40. That will include all Dragon missions going forward,” said Lee Echerd, senior mission manager of Human Spaceflight Mission Management at SpaceX during the Crew-12 prelaunch press briefing. “That will allow our Cape team to focus 39A on Falcon Heavy launches and hopefully our first Starship launches later this year.”
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Starship has been undergoing uncrewed test flights out of Texas. Early flights from the Pad 39A tower are likely to be more test flights and purely payload missions. There is no definite timeline on when astronauts will fly on Starship — or from which launch site it will be.
As for NASA’s role in Starship, the massive launch system is contracted to serve as the space agency’s Artemis III mission lunar lander. The plan is for a separately launched Starship to take two astronauts from the Orion spacecraft down to the moon’s surface. That mission is slated to happen by 2028. …