SpaceX is preparing for the inaugural orbital flight of its Starship megarocket, scheduled for September 28. The Super Heavy booster has been rolled out to the launch pad at Starbase in South Texas, marking a significant step in the mission. This will be Starship’s 14th flight and the first to reach orbital altitude.
After liftoff, Super Heavy aims for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes into the flight. Meanwhile, the Ship upper stage will ascend to low Earth orbit to deploy 26 next-gen Starlink V3 satellites, part of SpaceX’s ambitious plan to create a broadband megaconstellation eventually consisting of around 100,000 satellites.
Following its deployment, the Ship will circle the Earth approximately six times before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near Chile 10 hours post-launch. This flight introduces a new splashdown location, as prior suborbital missions landed in the Indian Ocean.
Starship, standing 408 feet (124 meters) tall, is designed to be fully reusable, which SpaceX believes could revolutionize space travel, enabling sustainable lunar and Martian colonization.
