SpaceX Prepares Starship for First-Ever Orbital Test Flight

SpaceX is preparing to launch its Starship megarocket on its first orbital test flight, Flight 14, from Starbase, Texas, as soon as Sept. 28, after the Federal Aviation Administration issued license authorization for the launch and reentry operations, according to Aviation Week and Spaceflight Now.²⁶

The mission will send the 407-foot (124-meter) Starship-Super Heavy stack into Earth orbit for the first time, after 13 previous suborbital test flights, according to Space.com and Spectrum News 13. The vehicle consists of Ship 41, a 52-meter upper stage, stacked on the Super Heavy booster designated B21, according to Spaceflight Now.⁴³⁶

SpaceX assembled the rocket on the launch pad at Starbase, with the tower's chopstick arms lifting Ship 41 onto the booster, Spaceflight Now reported. The FAA put a temporary flight restriction in place at Starbase from Sept. 23 through Oct. 7, covering airspace up to 10,000 feet, according to the outlet. The launch window opens at 8:15 a.m. ET and lasts 75 minutes, according to Spectrum News 13, while Spaceflight Now reported a planned launch time of 7:15 a.m. CDT (1215 UTC).⁶³

According to SpaceX, the flight is planned to be the nearly 10-hour mission during which Starship will orbit Earth about six times at an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile. The upper stage is set to perform an orbital insertion maneuver, a deorbit burn using a single Raptor engine, and a controlled reentry, according to Spectrum News 13 and Aviation Week. Aviation Week reported the deorbit burn is scheduled eight hours, 52 minutes and 37 seconds after launch, lasting 11 seconds. The booster, meanwhile, is expected to come down in the Gulf of Mexico roughly seven minutes into the mission, Space.com reported.⁷³²⁴

Flight 14 will attempt to deploy 26 next-generation Starlink Version 3 satellites, marking the first time such satellites enter the constellation, according to SpaceX and Aviation Week. SpaceX said a trio of the satellites carry added camera equipment meant to survey the condition of Starship's heatshield. SpaceX said each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 terabit per second of capacity to the constellation, though Spectrum News 13 flagged this figure as disputed within its own reporting.⁷²³

The test follows Flight 13 in July, which ended with what Aviation Week described as an unexpectedly soft impact in the Indian Ocean, with the vehicle floating for days according to Spectrum News 13. During that flight, the Super Heavy booster managed to reignite only eight of its thirteen motors before its vertical landing, according to CNN. SpaceX said it has added retention mechanisms to heatshield tiles in high-risk areas following that flight, and plans to reuse two recovered tiles from Ship 40 on Ship 41, which Spectrum News 13 described as the first instance of tile reuse.²³⁵

SpaceX has previously caught Super Heavy boosters with the launch tower's chopstick arms three times but has not yet attempted to catch the Ship stage in the same way, according to Space.com. The company also has not yet demonstrated propellant transfer between vehicles in orbit, the outlet reported. Space.com reported that SpaceX envisions both segments of the vehicle eventually flying again and again with minimal turnaround, a goal the company has dubbed the "holy grail of rocketry."⁴

NASA has tapped Starship to serve as the lunar lander that will carry the first crew to the moon under the Artemis program, aiming for a 2028 touchdown on the Artemis IV mission and marking a return to the surface not seen since the Apollo era, according to Space.com. Spectrum News 13 reported that Starship is also scheduled for use on the Artemis III orbital mission. According to CNN, Elon Musk intends for the vehicle eventually to launch as often as once or twice a month, and ultimately once an hour, as SpaceX seeks to expand operations to Florida and a planned $100 billion complex in Louisiana.⁴³⁵

Spectrum News 13 noted that if Flight 14 succeeds, a subsequent Starship 15 launch could take place from Florida. The launch had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 22, before being pushed to as soon as Sept. 28, according to the outlet.³