SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket reached first stage main engine cutoff and the first and second stages separated, according to a NASA launch blog post published October 1, 2026. The second-stage engine was set to ignite next. After separation, the first stage was to perform a boostback burn and travel back toward Earth for a landing at SpaceX's Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

An earlier entry in the same blog reported the rocket passing Max Q, the moment of peak aerodynamic stress on the vehicle as it climbs through the lower atmosphere. A separate featured post described the Dragon spacecraft separating from the Falcon 9 second stage and flying on its own, traveling at approximately 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 kilometers per hour). That post said the spacecraft was in orbit and would dock autonomously to the Harmony module's space-facing port.

The blog did not state the mission's overall outcome in the passages provided.