Starship is heading back to the pad. SpaceX is preparing to launch the 14th flight of its Starship rocket as early as Monday, September 28, subject to regulatory approval. The 75-minute launch window is scheduled to open at 7:15 a.m. CT, marking a major milestone in the development of the fully reusable spacecraft.
SpaceX has you covered with a live stream. The broadcast will be available on SpaceX's official website starting roughly 30 minutes before liftoff, with real-time updates also provided on X (formerly Twitter).
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Mission of SpaceX Flight 14
Flight 14 is planned to be Starship's first orbital mission. The upcoming mission is designed to take Starship to an altitude of approximately 275 km, complete around six orbits and last nearly 10 hours before a targeted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile..
After staging, Starship's upper stage will head into orbit to tackle a major milestone: deploying 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, a payload expected to boost constellation capacity by 26 Tbps, roughly ten times that of a standard Falcon 9 launch.
Following satellite deployment, the vehicle will execute an in-space deorbit burn with a single Raptor engine, aiming for a controlled re-entry and a final splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Test on Flight 14
SpaceX's Super Heavy booster is set to test critical flight phases, from launch and stage separation to its final landing burn before a planned offshore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The mission follows hardware and software upgrades designed to resolve the ice-related engine failures that cut Flight 13's boostback maneuver short.
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The team is also testing heat shield tweaks this time around, from sturdier tile mountings and curved designs to better plasma shielding. Even cooler, Ship 41 will fly with two recycled tiles from Ship 40, taking Starship's first real step toward reusable heat protection.
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