SpaceX has set September 22 as the target for Starship Flight 14. The next mission will hopefully see the massive rocket reach orbit for the first time, and deploy the first set of next-generation Starlink satellites.
According to an update from SpaceX on Tuesday, Flight 14 is scheduled to lift off from Starbase in South Texas during a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT (8:15 a.m. ET).
While Starship has flown 13 times since its debut in 2023, every mission so far has followed a suborbital trajectory. That will change significantly with Flight 14, with Starship expected to complete six orbits of Earth.
After launch, Ship is expected to climb to roughly 275 km (171 miles). The mission will last about 10 hours before Starship reenters the atmosphere and targets a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile. Previous Starship flights lasted roughly 65 minutes and ended in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.
Flight 14 will also carry Starship’s first operational satellite payload – 26 Starlink V3 satellites. Starship did deploy V3 satellites in Flight 13, but those were dummy satellites that later burned up in the atmosphere.
SpaceX’s constellation already includes more than 11,000 active satellites, but none are the next-generation V3 design. Three of those satellites will carry cameras positioned to photograph Ship’s heat shield after deployment, giving SpaceX additional data on its condition before reentry.
Super Heavy, meanwhile, will target a Gulf of Mexico splashdown about seven minutes after launch. SpaceX will not attempt to catch either vehicle with Starbase’s launch tower. The company has successfully caught Super Heavy three times but has yet to attempt a Ship catch.
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