SpaceX is set to launch Starship Flight 14 from Starbase, Texas, on Monday, with the mission marking the rocket’s first orbital attempt and the first operational deployment of 26 Starlink V3 satellites. The flight follows FAA authorisation issued after 13 earlier suborbital Starship tests and is expected to be the vehicle’s first full step into commercial orbital use.
If the mission succeeds, Starship will carry the satellites into low Earth orbit before continuing a roughly 10-hour profile that includes several Earth circuits, a deorbit burn and a Pacific splashdown for the upper stage. The booster is expected to return separately with a Gulf of Mexico recovery plan. The launch window opens around 12:15 UTC, or 8:15 a.m. EDT.
The payload is central to SpaceX’s broader Starlink expansion strategy. Earlier Starship flights have carried Starlink hardware only on suborbital trajectories, meaning the satellites did not remain in orbit. Flight 14 is the first designed to place operational V3 satellites into service, with reports pointing to about 26 Tbps of added network capacity if deployment proceeds as planned.