SpaceX has completed assembly of the Starship rocket slated to launch the test vehicle’s most ambitious mission to date.
Flight 14, the 14th full-stack launch of Starship’s test campaign, is slated to lift off during a 75-minute window that opens at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT) on Sept. 28. The Super Heavy first stage for Flight 14, Booster 21, was transported to Starbase’s Pad 2 earlier this week, and its upper-stage Ship (Ship 41) joined its counterpart at the pad overnight on Wednesday (Sept. 23).
The two were stacked before the sun rose on the South Texas launch facility and are undergoing final checkouts before SpaceX performs a key fueling test known as a wet dress rehearsal, which is expected sometime Thursday (Sept. 24).
Flight 14 will be Starship’s first attempt at reaching orbit, and a major milestone for the launch vehicle that has now been in development for 10 years. If all goes according to plan, Flight 14 will also see the first deployment of SpaceX’s upgraded Starlink Version 3 (V3) high-speed internet satellites. Starship has carried small batches of V3 Starlinks on previous launches, but those missions’ suborbital trajectories meant the satellites burned up in Earth’s atmosphere rather than remaining in orbit.
Ship 41 has been loaded with 26 Starlink V3s, which, if successfully deployed, will be the very first in a constellation that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hopes to grow to more than 100,000. The larger, more powerful Starlink V3s will eventually completely replace the existing Starlink network and, according to Musk, will occupy low Earth orbit (LEO) alongside an even larger network of more than 1 million AI data center satellites, if SpaceX gets regulatory approval.
Deploying these first V3 Starlinks will depend on Starship reaching orbit, a feat the rocket has yet to attempt. Starship’s first 13 flights all flew suborbital trajectories by design, as SpaceX fine-tuned the launch vehicle’s design. Like the Starlink satellites it’s carrying, Starship is also in its V3 design iteration. SpaceX is confident that the V3 Starship can carry out the elementary components of its immediate missions ahead: chiefly, reaching orbit, deploying its payload and returning safely to Earth.
Much beyond that requires clearing a few technological hurdles SpaceX has yet to tackle, such as orbital refueling and storing cryogenic propellants in space. For Starship to deliver payloads beyond LEO will require supplemental Starship “tanker” launches to replenish a primary Ship’s propellant. And SpaceX will need to overcome those obstacles to Starship’s full operational status soon.
In addition to SpaceX’s own eagerness to begin launching the Starlink V3 megaconstellation, NASA has also contracted the vehicle as a lunar lander for the Artemis program. NASA is expecting an orbital spacecraft capable of docking with the agency’s Orion spacecraft in time for Artemis III in mid-2027, and a crew-certified vehicle to land astronauts on the moon on Artemis IV, in 2028.
If everything goes smoothly during Thursday’s wet dress rehearsal, SpaceX will be free to proceed toward Flight 14’s Sept. 28 launch target, pending regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration . Unlike previous suborbital flights that have lasted only about an hour, Flight 14’s orbital jaunt is expected to last about 10 hours from liftoff to splashdown of Ship 41 in the Pacific Ocean.
