Starship’s 14th flight: SpaceX aims for first orbital entry

SpaceX conducted an important test for its Starship program on Monday, September 28, aiming to send the giant spacecraft on its first orbital flight.

The launch took place at 2:48 p.m. local time from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. It was Starship’s 14th flight since its first test, which was conducted in April 2023.

So far, the spacecraft’s missions have been suborbital. This means Starship has reached space but has not attained the speed needed to remain in Earth’s orbit, which is around 28,000 kilometers per hour.

With an overall height of around 124 meters, Starship is considered the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. It consists of the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft, both designed to be reused.

Flight Plan 14 calls for the roughly 52-meter-long Starship to complete six laps around Earth. The mission is also expected to deploy 26 Starlink Version 3 satellites, which will join a new constellation in low Earth orbit.

About 10 hours after launch, the spacecraft is expected to return to Earth and attempt a landing in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile. Super Heavy, meanwhile, is expected to complete its mission phase about seven minutes after launch, attempting to land in the Gulf of Mexico.

Even a successful completion of this mission would not mean Starship is ready for regular use in space, as SpaceX still has several important milestones to meet.

One technology the company must test is the safe transfer of fuel between spacecraft in orbit. This will be essential for future journeys to the Moon and Mars, which will require multiple refueling operations by dedicated spacecraft that will act as space tankers.

Before launching missions with astronauts, Starship must also be equipped with life-support systems.

NASA has selected Starship as the lunar lander for crewed missions under the Artemis program. The goal is to return humans to the Moon in 2028 through the Artemis IV mission.

For this reason, Flight 14 is seen as a particularly important test for Starship’s future, as it aims to show whether the spacecraft can move from experimental testing to use in regular space missions.