SpaceX has revealed the ambitious mission profile for Starship Flight 14—and if everything goes according to plan, Ship 41 will become the first Starship to enter orbit.
During a nearly 10-hour mission, Ship 41 is expected to complete approximately six orbits of Earth, deploy 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites and conduct a deorbit burn before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile. But Starship won’t commit to orbit immediately: SpaceX has designed an Indian Ocean fallback trajectory in case the vehicle isn’t healthy enough to perform its orbital insertion burn.
Flight 14 is now targeted for no earlier than September 28, pending regulatory approval from the FAA.
We break down the complete Flight 14 mission, including:
• Starship’s orbital insertion and contingency plans
• Deployment of the first operational Starlink V3 satellites
• Ship 41’s nine-hour orbital coast and deorbit burn
• Pacific splashdown plans
• Booster 21’s upgrades and planned Gulf splashdown
• What Flight 14 could mean for catching Starship on Flight 15
SpaceX also released “Holy Grail of Rocketry,” the third episode of its Starship docuseries. The episode reveals what happened to Booster 20 during Flight 13, how Ship 40’s unexpected recovery accelerated Starship development and why SpaceX believes S40 could have been caught by a launch tower.
Meanwhile, Booster 21 has rolled to Pad 2, Ship 43 has been fully stacked, work continues inside Gigabay, and SpaceX is preparing both Starbase launch pads for future flights. Over in Florida, LC-39A appears to be approaching the final stages of construction, while McGregor continues an intense pace of Raptor testing.
Do you think Flight 14 will launch next week—and could SpaceX attempt to catch both vehicles on Flight 15? Let us know below.
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🖊️ Written by Eleanor Day & Baastian.
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✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton.
💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed).
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