SpaceX scheduled the first orbital test flight of its Starship megarocket for Sept. 22 at its Starbase facility in South Texas. The launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. local Texas time and lasts 75 minutes.
The mission represents Flight 14.
Flight plan includes six full orbits around Earth
If the mission proceeds as designed, the 171-foot-tall upper stage, known as Ship, will complete six orbits of Earth at an altitude of approximately 171 miles before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile about 10 hours after liftoff. This trajectory differs from all previous 13 suborbital tests, in which the upper stage remained in the air for only 65 minutes without orbiting and landed in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. “By going to orbit, the next phase of developing Starship to be fully and rapidly reusable can begin,” SpaceX stated in the mission outline.
Key technical parameters of the upcoming launch
- Rocket total height: 408 feet
- Upper stage height: 171 feet
- Planned orbital altitude: 171 miles
- First-stage flight duration: 7 minutes
The 408-foot-tall vehicle will separate its stages early in the flight, sending the Super Heavy booster down for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico roughly seven minutes after launch. Mechanical catch arms on the Starbase tower will not attempt to snag either rocket stage on Sept. 22, although SpaceX previously caught the Super Heavy booster at the launch pad on three separate occasions.
Deployment of next-generation Starlink satellites
SpaceX will deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites into space during this flight, marking the first time the company launches these larger, high-capacity communication units.
While the existing Starlink constellation operates more than 11,000 active broadband satellites in low Earth orbit, founder Elon Musk announced long-term plans to scale the network to 100,000 V3 units to expand connection speeds worldwide, and three of the new satellites on this launch carry dedicated camera systems engineered to record the performance of Ship’s thermal heat shield during atmospheric reentry. SpaceX engineers plan to inspect the resulting imagery to upgrade heat shield designs for future return flights.
Future objectives after reaching orbit
Catching Ship with the launch tower remains a goal reserved for subsequent test operations. Orbital refueling tests will also follow later to support future missions targeting the moon and Mars. SpaceX announced the launch date on Sept. 15.