SpaceX’s Starship is on the cusp of a major milestone as the company prepares to send the megarocket into orbit for the first time. The launch window will open at 8:15 a.m. ET on Monday, September 28 and will remain open for 75 minutes. Yesterday, SpaceX shared photos of Starship fully stacked on the Starbase launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, and confirmed that it is on track for launch on Monday, pending regulatory approval. Engineers will carry out a wet dress rehearsal today, allowing them to practice countdown and fueling procedures and identify any technical problems before launch. The orbital flight will mark a turning point for Starship. This is a key hurdle the rocket must overcome before it can demonstrate full and rapid reusability and commercial viability. All previous test flights have followed suborbital trajectories, but this time, Starship will attempt to fly to an altitude of 275 kilometers (171 miles) above Earth and remain in orbit for 10 hours, circling the planet about six times before landing off the coast of Chile. What to Expect If all goes as planned, the Super Heavy booster will ignite its engines at T-0 and launch Starship into the sky. Approximately two minutes after liftoff, the booster will separate from Starship and perform a roll maneuver followed by a recoil thrust so it can re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico. After stage separation and spin during the final test flight, the Super Heavy booster managed to use its 33 Raptor engines for recoil thrust for the first time. However, towards the end of the burn, its three center engines became clogged with ice, causing the maneuver to end early. Super Heavy attempted a fiery landing, but only eight of the planned 13 engines reignited and the booster splashed down hard in the Gulf. To avoid a similar outcome on Flight 14, SpaceX has modified some of the Super Heavy’s hardware to “improve filtering of the engines and software changes to improve restart reliability,” according to the company’s website. Starship’s biggest goal will be to reach orbit. After stage separation, the spacecraft will attempt its first orbital insertion, firing its engines for about 19 seconds to reach orbital speed. Once the power-up is complete, the ship’s engines will shut down and it will begin its first trip around the planet. About 10 minutes into that trip, Starship will attempt to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites. These will not be the dummy satellites deployed on previous Starship test flights; In reality, they will operate as part of the Starlink megaconstellation, adding 26 terabits per second of capacity. Once released from Starship, the satellites will use onboard propulsion to raise their orbits. After completing its 10-hour flight, Starship will attempt a controlled re-entry, descent and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The final test flight ended with the ship intact and floating on the surface of the Indian Ocean, where it drifted for 24 days before SpaceX managed to recover it. This was the first time the company recovered an intact upper stage after flight, and the opportunity allowed them to conduct a detailed analysis of the heat shield. Based on that analysis, engineers made some improvements to the heat shield that will be tested on Flight 14. These include “additional retention mechanisms added to the slabs in areas considered at higher risk of falling during ascent, addressing newly discovered areas that offer flow paths behind the slabs for plasma, and flying multiple areas with a curved slab design that has demonstrated the ability to reduce heating in the spaces between the slabs,” according to SpaceX. Two tiles recovered from the upper stage of Flight 13 were also added to Ship 41, marking the first reuse of Starship tiles.
