Starfighters Space Plans December Captive-Carry Flight Toward 2027 Suborbital Launch With F-104s From Kennedy Space Center
Why It MattersAir-launched suborbital concepts based on ex-military supersonic jets are moving from sensor testing toward rocket integration, adding a niche small-payload route that sits outside conventional ground-launched commercial launch.
Starfighters Space owns what it describes as the world's only civilian fleet of flight-ready Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, based in a hangar beside the former Space Shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Founded by pilot Rick Svetkoff in the mid-1990s (the source gives both 1995 and 1996), the company first flew airshows in former Royal Canadian Air Force CF-104s. It moved to Kennedy in 2007, made its first flight from the Shuttle Landing Facility that year, and has since opened a second base at Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas. The present fleet took shape in 2011, when five F-104s bought from the Italian Air Force arrived.
The jets have flown as photo chase planes, military exercise targets and technology testbeds. NASA signed a Space Act Agreement with the company and contracted the F-104s to fly simulated suborbital profiles from the Kennedy runway to help measure sonic boom effects for future commercial launches. A modular underwing pylon platform, called the "Wind Tunnel in the Sky", carries customer sensors, materials and electronics, and one F-104 mission can provide up to ten minutes of continuous Mach 2+ exposure. In 2025, an F-104 carried GE Aerospace's ATLAS test vehicle on three supersonic captive-carry flights from Kennedy, validating performance for solid-fuel ramjet technology. The jets also fly steep parabolic arcs that give 60 to 90 seconds of microgravity per run.
The company's main goal is suborbital and eventually orbital launch under its Starlaunch program. Starlaunch 1 has been tested in a wind tunnel run by the joint engineering college of Florida A&M and Florida State universities, which showed clean separation across all tested conditions at Mach 0.85 to Mach 1.3. In September, Starfighters Space partnered with Vaya Space to integrate the Vortex-Hybrid rocket engine, which uses a 3D-printed plastic fuel with a liquid oxidizer. In October, it announced a December test flight carrying an inert rocket under one wing from Kennedy. Separately, a $26 million lawsuit between CEO Timothy Franta and former founder Rick Svetkoff is ongoing, and the company's stock price has fallen sharply since its IPO, which raised $40 million.
