SpaceX to Attempt First Starship Orbital Flight on Sept. 22
Original: SpaceX will try to put Starship in orbit for the first time on September 22
Why This Matters
Orbital insertion would validate Starship's core commercial promise and accelerate the Falcon 9 retirement timeline.
SpaceX announced on September 15 that Flight 14 of its Starship mega-rocket is scheduled for September 22, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT. For the first time, SpaceX will attempt to place the upper stage in Earth orbit and deploy 26 third-generation Starlink V3 satellites.
SpaceX has scheduled the 14th Starship test flight for September 22, marking the first attempt to achieve true Earth orbit with the vehicle's upper stage. The launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. CT and runs 75 minutes. If successful, the mission will deploy 26 V3 Starlink satellites—the first Starship flight to generate actual revenue for SpaceX's launch division, even if that revenue originates internally.
This is the second Starship test since SpaceX went public in what it called the largest IPO in history in June. Flight 13 in July successfully deployed V3 Starlinks for testing purposes, but those satellites burned up in the atmosphere after roughly 20 minutes. The upper stage itself performed well on that flight, completing a simulated landing in the Indian Ocean without exploding—an outcome that allowed recovery teams to tow the stage back to SpaceX's Texas facility.
The Super Heavy booster remains a problem. It failed to properly relight its engines after stage separation on Flight 13, and SpaceX has made another round of 'several modifications' to booster hardware and software. Neither the booster nor the upper stage will be caught by the launch tower this flight. CEO Elon Musk explicitly ruled out an upper-stage tower catch, citing the risk of a costly explosion at this stage of the program.
Reaching orbit is a prerequisite for SpaceX's plan to retire the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy once Starship can fly 'reliably several times per week,' per Musk's public statements during the IPO process.