SpaceX is preparing to launch its giant Starship rocket early Monday in an attempt to send the spacecraft into orbit for the first time, marking a major test of a system central to the company’s plans for expanding its satellite business and future space missions.
According to SpaceX, the 75-minute launch window is scheduled to open at 8.15am Eastern Time, or 7.15am local time, from Starbase in Texas. The Federal Aviation Administration said it issued a “license authorization for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Flight 14 launch and reentry operations” on September 26.
The 14th Starship test flight will also carry 26 of SpaceX’s new Starlink V3 satellites. Unlike the 13 previous test flights, none of which was intended to reach orbit, SpaceX is seeking to have Starship complete an orbital flight during the latest mission.
Starship is central to SpaceX’s plans to expand its Starlink connectivity business, which was the company’s largest and only profitable segment in the second quarter. SpaceX currently operates about 11,000 active satellites in orbit, compared with roughly 650 operated by competitor Eutelsat OneWeb.
Elon Musk said on SpaceX’s August earnings call that Starlink could eventually provide a majority of the world’s internet service in countries where the company is permitted to operate. “It’s not out of the question that at some point, Starlink will deliver a majority of the world’s internet, at least in countries where we’re allowed to operate, which is the vast majority of countries,” Musk said.
SpaceX went public in June in what was described as the largest initial public offering on record and is now valued at about $2tn. The company has designed Starship Super Heavy and its booster to be fully reusable, with the objective of carrying more cargo into orbit at lower cost than previous spacecraft.
The test also comes as SpaceX prepares Starship for a major NASA mission next year. The company intends to use the rocket to return US astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
Beyond satellite deployment and lunar missions, SpaceX has outlined plans to use Starship for computing infrastructure in orbit. Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s chief operating officer, said earlier this month that SpaceX planned to put “supercompute in space” by launching “AI compute satellites” into orbit in 2027.
The Starlink V3 satellites being deployed on the test flight are produced at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington. The new generation is equipped with solar arrays capable of generating twice as much power as earlier versions. They are also larger and designed to transmit data more rapidly to Starlink subscribers.
The orbital attempt therefore combines several of SpaceX’s objectives for Starship: demonstrating the rocket’s ability to reach orbit, deploying a more powerful generation of Starlink satellites and advancing a launch system intended for increasingly demanding commercial and government missions.
