SpaceX Set to Launch Starship Rocket into Orbit in Historic First Orbital Flight

Deep News
09/28

SpaceX plans to launch its massive Starship rocket early Monday morning, aiming to achieve the vehicle's first-ever orbital flight.

According to SpaceX's official website, the launch window lasts 75 minutes and opens at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time, which is 7:15 a.m. local time in Texas, with the launch taking place at the company's Starbase facility in Texas.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said via email that it issued a "SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy Flight 14 launch and reentry operations license" on September 26.

During this 14th Starship test flight mission, Elon Musk's aerospace and defense company also plans to deploy 26 brand-new Starlink V3 satellites.

Starship is critical to SpaceX's expansion strategy. The company is counting on this giant rocket to grow Starlink, its internet connectivity business. As of the second quarter, Starlink was SpaceX's largest and only profitable business segment.

Currently, SpaceX operates approximately 11,000 active satellites in orbit, while its competitor Europe's Eutelsat-OneWeb has about 650 satellites in orbit.

During SpaceX's earnings call in August, Musk said: "At some point in the future, it's not far-fetched for Starlink to carry the majority of global internet traffic, at least in countries where we are authorized to operate, and such countries account for the vast majority of the world."

SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history in June and is currently valued at approximately $2 trillion.

SpaceX designed the Starship-Super Heavy rocket and booster as a fully reusable system, aiming to deliver more cargo to orbit at lower cost than any previous spacecraft.

None of the previous 13 test flights had orbital insertion as their goal; with the 14th test flight, SpaceX hopes Starship can achieve flight around Earth's orbit.

The company is preparing Starship for a major NASA test flight next year and plans to use the rocket to send American astronauts back to the lunar surface.

SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell revealed at the All-In Summit earlier this month that the company also plans to use Starship to achieve "space supercomputing," launching "AI computing satellites" into orbit in 2027.

The new-generation V3 satellites are produced at SpaceX's factory in Redmond, Washington. The solar arrays carried by the satellites have twice the power generation capacity of the previous generation; the satellites are larger and designed with stronger performance, capable of providing Starlink users with faster data transmission rates than the previous generation.

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