Starlink Group 31-1 (Starship Flight 14)

Starship just reached orbit for the first time, carrying satellites for SpaceX's Starlink program. Analysts disagree on whether that's a detour or the destination — and what of the company's plans for the Red Planet? Ten years ago, Elon Musk stood on stage at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, and unveiled plans for a giant spaceship to carry people to Mars. This past Sept. 28 — a decade and a day later — the descendant of that vehicle reached orbit for the first time , on Starship's 14th-ever test flight. The designs and hardware evolved greatly over those…

The great views of Starship's first orbital flight keep on coming. The megarocket circled our planet for the first time ever on Sept. 28 , its 14th liftoff to date. And Starship deployed some payloads when it got up there — 26 of the company's next-gen Starlink satellites, the first members of a broadband constellation that will eventually consist of 100,000 spacecraft , if all goes to plan. SpaceX already released still imagery of that historic deployment, which was captured by cameras on a few of the Starlink satellites. But on Tuesday, the company gave us something even better, releasing…

SpaceX made significant strides in the Starship program during Flight 14. Booster 21, despite losing… The post Starship makes orbit, Flight 15 preps in full swing appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

Although technical issues cut the mission short, Starship achieved most of its objectives, including its first deployment of an operational payload into orbit.

The Super Heavy first stage booster, generating some 16 million pounds of thrust — twice the power of NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket — rapidly accelerated as it consumed propellant and lost weight, climbing out of the thick lower atmosphere along a southeasterly trajectory.

SpaceX sent its Starship super-rocket on its first orbital flight — a shorter-than-planned test mission that put operational Starlink satellites into orbit for the first time.

The flight did not go exactly as planned, but SpaceX’s Starship Integrated Flight Test-14 did make it into orbit for the first time today and deployed 26 operational Starlink V3 […]

The first planned orbital flight of a Starship-Super Heavy rocket aims to send 26 Starlink Version 3 into low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, is scheduled during a 75-minute window that opens at 7:15 a.m. CDT (8:15 a.m. EDT / 1215 UTC).

After more than a decade of development in many forms, SpaceX’s Starship is slated to… The post Starship Flight 14: SpaceX Attempts Orbit appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

With Flight 14 being Starship’s first intended orbital mission, a near-term manifest is already pointing… The post Flight 14 waits on approval as a near-term manifest sketches Starship’s next steps appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

The inclusion of the upper stage, tail number Ship 41, comes ahead of a probable fueling demonstration planned in the days leading up to a launch attempt. Starship Flight 14 is scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 28, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

SpaceX rolled Ship 41 to the launch site for stacking with Booster 21, and the… The post Ship 41 rolls to Pad 2 carrying two flown tiles from Ship 40 appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.