SpaceX made vital strides within the Starship program throughout Flight 14. Booster 21, regardless of dropping just a few engines, nonetheless accomplished its total flight. Ship 41 reached orbit regardless of dropping a Raptor Vacuum engine on ascent, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and returned safely to the Pacific Ocean simply north of Hawaii.
Whereas a post-flight overview will happen internally, SpaceX is already staging for the following flight and a possible return to catching autos, with Flight 15 probably going down in October.
Flight 14 Evaluation:
The prelaunch chilldown for this launch resembled the Moist Costume Rehearsal (WDR) carried out on Sept. 24, during which the methane reclaim vent began up one hour half-hour earlier than propellant load as a substitute of two hours, in comparison with Flights 12 and 13. This can make tank farm operations with a full stack faster sooner or later.
This was already after SpaceX had pushed the launch by 31 minutes; SpaceX would find yourself pushing the launch to 7:48:59 am CDT after a fast maintain at T-00:56:47. Later within the flight, SpaceX stated the delays have been to make sure higher lighting at their Pacific Ocean splashdown factors.
LAUNCH! Starship Flight 14 launches from Starbase Pad 2 on its first orbital mission try.
Dwell on X and YT: pic.twitter.com/YcZoz3Rndr
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) September 28, 2026
The remainder of the countdown proceeded with none holds or points, as Booster 21 and Ship 41 have been crammed with round 5,500 metric tons of propellant after which went straight to liftoff. Liftoff was proper at 7:48:59 am CDT, and Booster 21 had all 33 engines working proper at liftoff.
Then, at T+ 00:01:16, a single Raptor engine within the internal ring of 10 went out; nevertheless, Booster 21 continued to sizzling staging with 32 of 33 engines.
At sizzling staging, Ship 41 ignited all six Raptor engines, and Booster 21 ignited 31 of 33 for the preliminary section of the enhance again burn. The engine that was turned off throughout ascent nonetheless appeared to glow because the booster aft part appeared on the ship flap cam. Booster 21 accomplished its full-duration enhance again burn, going from 31 Raptors to 11, then down to three earlier than shutting down and beginning the glide again.
Starship’s Raptor engines ignite throughout hot-staging separation. Tremendous Heavy boosted again in the direction of its splashdown website within the Gulf of America pic.twitter.com/0DcBz1wayt
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Booster 21 then accomplished its glide again and lit solely 11 of 13 engines for the touchdown burn; the 2 engines that didn’t mild have been the identical ones misplaced on ascent and through boost-back startup.
Booster 21 then accomplished its touchdown burn by performing a smooth splashdown within the Gulf earlier than blowing up. SpaceX deliberately set off the Flight Termination System as a “check of the protection system”, but in addition to show the booster into hundreds of items, so that they wouldn’t need to go salvage something.
Booster 21 additionally used a special touchdown profile than the earlier a number of boosters which have really landed.
In footage captured by NSF photographers because it got here by way of the clouds, the booster makes use of its preliminary 13-engine burn to bleed off tons of pace, then switches down to 5 engines.
As soon as down to 5 engines, the booster pitches towards the tower to get shut, then ranges out whereas gimbaling the ignited engines to roll into the correct orientation to be caught by Pad 2’s chopsticks.
Booster 21 lands! pic.twitter.com/1PgY1R6LPC
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) September 28, 2026
The maneuver is required as a result of Pad 2’s tower faces southeast and differs from all the opposite towers SpaceX is presently constructing. It was constructed this fashion due to land constraints when the pad was being constructed.
Ship 41’s ascent went properly till T+ 00:07:18, when Engine 6 Raptor Vacuum SN 127 shut down. This marks the second time in three Block 3 flights {that a} Raptor Vacuum engine has gone out in the course of the ascent burn. Fortunately, although, Block 3 has engine-out functionality, and Ship 41 made it to second-stage engine cutoff at T+00:08:35 by burning a bit longer.
Then got here the nerve-racking wait to listen to whether or not or not this concern with the Raptor Vacuum would make SpaceX abort the orbital injection burn. With out the burn, Ship 41 was on a suborbital observe of -40 x 278 km at a 30.5-degree inclination, which is a bit off the 32 levels they’re approved for Starlink V3.
Go for orbit! Starship will quickly carry out a burn with a single Raptor engine to enter an ~275 km orbit of Earth pic.twitter.com/HQxgQYc4eZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
At T+00:11:20, Dan Huot, SpaceX’s Communications Supervisor, introduced that launch management had determined to not go for orbit due to Raptor vacuum points encountered throughout ascent. Then, a couple of minute later, Dan Huot introduced that groups have been nonetheless reviewing the information and may change their thoughts about attempting for orbit.
After a near-10-min wait, SpaceX mission management polled: Go for orbit!
Subsequent up got here the orbital insertion burn, which began at T+ 00:25:20 and was a 95 m/s burn that positioned Ship 41 in a 262 by 275 km, 30.5-degree inclination orbit. Then, after a brief coast, the primary of 26 Starlinks left the payload bay at T+ 00:35:05; this deployment sequence continued till T+ 01:04:22, when the ultimate Starlink satellite tv for pc left the payload bay, lit by one of many three Starlinks outfitted with cameras and spotlights. The payload bay door was absolutely closed by T+ 01:05:04.
Starship has begun deploying its payload of 26 @Starlink V3 satellites. This deployment sequence will take ~half-hour pic.twitter.com/ycIdAx5Lbe
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
At T+ 01:26:46, Dan Huot introduced that the groups had determined to take the primary contingency touchdown zone and are available again early. This meant Ship 41 would full just below two orbits and splashdown within the Pacific Ocean simply north of Hawaii. Whereas this was a bit disappointing, SpaceX was all the time going to be very conservative with this flight, as a result of the very last thing engineers need is to strand a ship in orbit.
Through the subsequent 45 minutes, Starship would coast in orbit partly all over the world. Throughout this time, Ship 41 passes over Hurricane Polo, which had lately made landfall on the west coast of Baja California after which Mexico. At factors throughout orbital daylight, the Starlink practice that Ship 41 deployed behind the ship itself is seen in a number of photographs in the course of the coast section and up until the deorbit burn.
Ship 41’s deorbit burn occurred at T+ 2:12:18 simply over South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. After the deorbit burn, Ship 41 fell slowly towards Earth. Ship 41’s reentry absolutely started round T+02:47:00; nevertheless, the sunshine present and the beginning of plasma formation started round T+2:40:00 as Ship 41 hit thicker and thicker components of Earth’s environment.
Starship is reentering the environment pic.twitter.com/fvWq4NwD23
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
This reentry is definitely the smoothest Starship has dealt with up to now, although it’s the quickest reentry pace of all the opposite managed reentries. It is because Ship 41 reentered at a shallower angle in comparison with the suborbital flights. This implies it skilled decrease peak warmth however for an extended interval.
After a wonderful reentry and an uneventful one, Starship accomplished its touchdown burn and flip maneuver earlier than splashing down within the Pacific Ocean at T+ 03:08:30, which makes this mission thrice longer than another Starship flight up to now.
Through the mission, SpaceX additionally confirmed that each one 26 V3 Starlinks contacted the community, floor stations, and even person terminals. Over the following few weeks, these 26 Starlinks will elevate their orbits to round 400 km earlier than turning into absolutely operational.
Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the whole SpaceX workforce on the primary orbital flight of Starship! pic.twitter.com/urjmiwnvNl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Though Ship 41 returned in the course of the first contingency checkpoint shortly after payload deployment, it is a main milestone for SpaceX and the Starship program. Ship 41 acquired to orbit and deployed an operational payload, and Booster 21 accomplished its total mission, which bodes properly for a catch with Booster 22. SpaceX nonetheless has work to do, primarily dropping Raptor engines on ascent, boostback, and touchdown. Hopefully, Flight 15 will likely be clear and haven’t any Raptor losses.
Flights 15
Following the profitable Flight 14, Flight 15 will likely be Booster 22 and Ship 42, and each are presently of their respective Mega Bays being fitted with Raptor engines.
At the moment, Booster 22 is slated to be prepared for static fireplace throughout the subsequent two weeks, and Ship 42 might be prepared inside two to 3 weeks. Accounting for post-static-fire preparations, potential Flight 14-related modifications, and payload loading, Booster 22 and Ship 42 might be flight-ready by the tip of October.
The ultimate hold-up will depend upon whether or not SpaceX decides to repeat Flight 14’s mission profile and check out for a 10-hour mission with Ship 42. At the moment, the Starship Tremendous Heavy launch license covers solely Flight 14 and would have to be modified for Flight 15, however the modification course of will likely be faster if SpaceX opts to fly the identical mission.
Pad 2 Servicing Construction Being Put in
After three flights, the now Orbital Launch Mount seems to be in nice form, and SpaceX is utilizing the brand new servicing construction to refurbish and repair the hold-down arms and clamps, somewhat than utilizing a scaffolding ground.
It’ll be attention-grabbing when Flight 15 launches, as a result of Flight 16 might be from LC-39A. As a result of as heard from folks at Kennedy House Heart, LC-39A has all techniques activated and is simply ready for autos and its roof to be put in.
Featured Picture: Ship 41 and Booster 21 Liftoff for Flight 14 (Credit score: Max Evans for NSF)
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