Starship rises above the shoreline at Starbase, Texas, 16 seconds after liftoff on Sept. 28, 2026. The Flight 14 launch turned the primary time the megarocket reached orbit, after 13 suborbital check flights. Credit score: SpaceX
Mission Spotlight: Starship Flight 14
After 13 earlier suborbital check flights, Starship lastly reached orbit on check flight 14. SpaceX’s launch window opened at 8:15 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 28, and the rocket cleared the tower at Starbase, Texas, at 8:48 a.m. EDT. Simply over three hours later, the flight led to a fireball within the northern Pacific Ocean.
The flight plan known as for Starship to settle into an orbit roughly 170 miles (275 kilometers) excessive and circle the planet about six occasions. Alongside the best way, it could launch 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the primary operational payload Starship had ever carried. Assuming the whole lot was nominal, it could make a managed splashdown within the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, almost 10 hours after launch.
There was a contact of drama, nonetheless: Shortly after Starship lit its engines and separated from the booster, one of many ship’s three Raptor Vacuum engines shut down early. “Ship did lose one of many engines, one in all its R Vacs, it regarded like, on the best way uphill, so we have to verify in and see what precisely which means for the remainder of the mission,” the SpaceX livestream host stated about T+10 minutes after launch.
At first, orbit regarded off the desk. The burn might occur provided that flight controllers had been “extraordinarily assured” the ship might nonetheless carry itself house. “Due to that [engine failure], we aren’t going to do the extra burn that may ship us into orbit,” Dan Huot, SpaceX communications supervisor, first stated at T+11:30. For the following 10 minutes, Starship coasted whereas the workforce pored over the info. Mission controllers discovered that the engines might nonetheless full the deorbit burn to get Starship house. At T+21:53, Huot delivered the brand new verdict: “We’re go for orbit.”
The Tremendous Heavy booster had its personal engine bother. A couple of minute into the flight, it appeared to lose one in all its 33 Raptors. “Appears to be like like we could have misplaced one engine alongside the best way, however that’s OK — we’ve bought 33 of them, so we are able to lose a pair alongside the best way,” a SpaceX consultant stated throughout the livestream. After separation, solely 31 of the booster’s engines relit for the opening of its boostback burn. A SpaceX consultant stated that Booster 21 carried out a “towerlike touchdown burn” that positioned the rocket in a vertical orientation — the identical sort it’ll ultimately use earlier than being caught by the launch tower’s mechanical arms. The booster then made “what regarded like a reasonably gentle splashdown” within the Gulf of Mexico, in accordance with the livestream. SpaceX stated it could share extra particulars on the booster later.
Again in orbit, the mission’s important occasion went cleanly. By 10:00 a.m. EDT, all 26 Starlink satellites had been out. As every slid freed from the ship’s PEZ-style dispenser, the management room broke into applause audible on the livestream. SpaceX later made contact with all 26. Each V3 provides 1 terabit per second of community capability. “Simply this one flight was like 20 Falcon 9 flights when it comes to bandwidth,” Huot stated. SpaceX has stated future Starships will carry about 60 satellites at a time.
At 10:17 a.m. EDT, the corporate posted on X that flight groups would deorbit Starship “to our pre-cleared space of the Pacific Ocean after 3 hours in orbit.”
“We had been going to get the info that we wished, so we made the decision to do that earlier reentry to Hawaii,” Huot defined. SpaceX had lined up two splashdown zones: One was off the coast of Chile, for the total 10-hour mission. The opposite was within the northern Pacific, “which is the place we’re presently headed,” he stated. After about two orbits, the ship fired a single Raptor for its deorbit burn roughly 2 hours and 12 minutes after liftoff.
On the best way down, Starship carried out its signature stomach flop, falling horizontally with its warmth defend going through the ambiance and steering with its flaps. Simply above the water, it flipped upright and fired its engines to decelerate. Splashdown got here round 11:57 a.m. EDT, 3 hours, 8 minutes, and 32 seconds after liftoff and almost seven hours forward of schedule.
“Starship has landed,” Huot introduced. Six seconds after landing, nonetheless, Ship 41 exploded. “Not fairly a gentle — further gentle splashdown like we had on the final one,” he stated shortly after. On Flight 13, Ship 40 executed the softest splashdown to this point and remained intact within the water. “Most significantly,” Huot concluded, “Starship made it to orbit.”
Reaching orbit was a constructive step for SpaceX and in addition for NASA’s Artemis program, which is relying on a modified Starship to land the Artemis 4 crew on the Moon as early as 2028. The toughest milestone remains to be forward, although: transferring cryogenic propellant between two Starships in house. Earlier than Starship can head for the Moon, it should refill its tanks whereas parked in Earth orbit. That feat will take a number of coordinated tanker launches and a switch course of nobody has but demonstrated.
Different rocket launches this week
On Thursday, Oct. 1, NASA and SpaceX are focusing on 11:10 a.m. EDT for the launch of Crew-13 from Area Launch Complicated 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station in Florida. A Falcon 9 will ship Crew Dragon Grace towards the Worldwide Area Station (ISS). Aboard are NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, serving as commander and pilot. Canadian Area Company astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov will fly as mission specialists.
The crew ought to dock round 8 p.m. EDT the identical day. They’ll be a part of Expedition 75 and relieve Crew-12, which has been aboard since mid-February. The Falcon 9 booster is anticipated to return to Touchdown Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral.
In a while Thursday, Oct. 1, SpaceX will launch Transporter 18 from Vandenberg Area Drive Base in California at 2:18 p.m. EDT. Transporter is SpaceX’s rideshare program, which bundles small satellites from many shoppers onto a single Falcon 9 to share the price of a experience to orbit. This flight carries 130 payloads for quite a lot of prospects, together with a prototype AI computing satellite tv for pc from Google as a part of their Project Suncatcher and a know-how demonstration from startup Star Catcher, which can try and transmit energy wirelessly between two free-flying spacecraft. In whole, SpaceX has launched over 1,800 payloads to orbit with its Transporter program. The booster is slated to land at Vandenberg’s Touchdown Zone 4.
Closing out Thursday, Oct. 1, a Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch NROL-97 from Kennedy Area Heart in Florida at 11:53 p.m. EDT. The client is the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (NRO) and the payload’s particulars are categorized. The 2 boosters are anticipated to return to Touchdown Zones 1 and a couple of at Cape Canaveral, whereas the middle core shall be expended.
Rocket launches final week
China opened the week on Wednesday, Sept. 23. A Lengthy March 8A launched from Wenchang Area Launch Website at 9:32 a.m. EDT carrying SatNet LEO Group 26, a batch of satellites for Guowang, China’s broadband megaconstellation.
A day later, on Thursday, Sept. 24, a Lengthy March 6A lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart at 4:46 a.m. EDT with Yaogan 40 Group 04. Yaogan is the designation China makes use of for presidency satellites.
On Friday, Sept. 25, Rocket Lab launched its “Owlright, Owlright, Owlright” mission at 8:39 p.m. EDT from Launch Complicated 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula. The rocket was an Electron topped with the corporate’s Curie kick stage, a small higher stage used for exact orbit placement.
The week wrapped up on Saturday, Sept. 26, when SpaceX launched the USSF-385 mission for the U.S. Area Drive from Vandenberg at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The Falcon 9 booster landed on the droneship Of Course I Nonetheless Love You within the Pacific Ocean.
Upcoming rocket launches
On Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Korea Aerospace Analysis Institute will launch its KSLV-2 rocket, also referred to as Nuri, from Naro Area Heart at 11:23 p.m. EDT. The rocket carries NeonSat-2 by NeonSat-6, a set of small Earth-observation satellites, together with different payloads.
On Saturday, Oct. 10, SpaceX plans to launch Starlink Group 15-25 from Vandenberg at 12:00 p.m. EDT, with the booster touchdown on Of Course I Nonetheless Love You.
Brooks Mendenhall is a workers author at Astronomy, based mostly in Chattanooga, Tennessee, fueled by an endless curiosity in regards to the universe. A former classroom instructor, he has a knack for breaking down complicated ideas for a large viewers.