SpaceX aims Starship for orbit on September 22

SpaceX is planning to launch its massive Starship rocket on September 22 for a 10-hour mission to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites into orbit. This marks the first time Starship will enter orbit. The spacecraft is expected to reach an altitude of around 275 km and complete six orbits before initiating a deorbit burn using one of its Raptor engines.

Following the deorbit burn, the spacecraft is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile. The Super Heavy Booster, which will carry Starship, will land in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Starship booster used all 33 engines for the boostback burn during flight 13, but experienced issues due to ice clogging in three center engines, resulting in an early termination of the maneuver. SpaceX has since refined its hardware, including improved filtering and updated software to enhance relight reliability. Additionally, the heat shield has been redesigned, featuring curved tiles and additional retention mechanisms on the most vulnerable areas.

Despite these improvements, reaching orbit remains uncertain, as SpaceX will only execute the final orbit insertion burn if they have enough hardware redundancy to perform a safe deorbit burn. The team must ensure that something as large as Starship can safely re-enter Earth's atmosphere after its mission. Starship has undergone a challenging test program, with some missions succeeding spectacularly, while others faced significant failures.

The vehicle is crucial to SpaceX's future, as it can carry heavier payloads than the Falcon 9 and is an integral part of NASA's Artemis program. For the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027, SpaceX aims to launch a Starship equipped with the docking apparatus designed for the lunar variant. Reaching orbit is therefore a critical milestone for the project.