SpaceX To Attempt Starship's First Orbital Flight Today, Deploying 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

SpaceX is preparing to launch Starship on its first orbital flight today during a 14th test flight. The 75-minute window opens at 7:15 am Central Time from Starbase, Texas, and depends on favorable weather conditions. SpaceX intends to livestream the event about 30 minutes prior to liftoff. The mission is expected to last nearly 10 hours, with Starship reaching an altitude of approximately 275 km above Earth. It will complete around six orbits before making a targeted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile.

Earlier tests had followed suborbital paths for public safety concerns. This orbital flight marks the beginning of Starship's journey towards becoming fully and rapidly reusable, an essential phase for making Starship a workhorse for future Moon and Mars missions.

The upper stage of Starship will perform its first orbital insertion burn, releasing 26 Starlink V3 satellites into orbit. Each satellite is engineered to contribute approximately 1 Tbps of capacity, totaling 26 Tbps for the entire deployment. This capacity is significantly higher than the downlink of a V2 satellite, with the company aiming to start customer service within weeks.

The Super Heavy booster will attempt to land at an offshore point in the Gulf of America, without a tower catch. SpaceX has modified the hardware and software based on issues encountered during the previous flight. Three of the 26 Starlink V3 satellites carry cameras to inspect the heat shield, with two previously flown tiles being reused for the first time.