Tag: Starship
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Elon Musk Says Starlink Could Carry Most Global Internet Traffic Within a Decade
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on September 23, 2026, that Starlink could carry the majority of global internet traffic within ten years, an ambitious forecast tied to the deployment of higher-capacity Starlink V3 satellites and proposed Starmind spacecraft combining broadband connectivity with orbital computing. The projection would represent a fundamental change in internet infrastructure.…
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Exolaunch Books First SpaceX Starfall Earth-Return Mission for 2029
Exolaunch has signed a contract with SpaceX to serve as payload integrator for a Starfall mission targeted to launch aboard Starship no earlier than 2029, marking the German company’s first commitment to Starship and its first mission involving the return of customer payloads from orbit. Announced on September 21, the agreement expands Exolaunch beyond conventional…
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SpaceX Rolls Super Heavy to Launch Pad for Starship’s First Orbital Flight
SpaceX moved the Super Heavy booster assigned to Starship Flight 14 to the launch pad at Starbase, Texas, on September 21, advancing preparations for the vehicle’s first orbital mission. Targeted for September 28 pending regulatory approval, the flight is expected to complete six Earth orbits and deploy 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites. The booster, identified…
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Exolaunch Books Customer Payloads on Starship-Launched Starfall Reentry Mission
German launch integrator Exolaunch announced Sept. 22 that it will aggregate and integrate customer payloads for a SpaceX Starfall reentry mission scheduled to launch aboard Starship no earlier than 2029. The agreement represents both Exolaunch’s first commitment to a Starship mission and its first move into services designed to return commercial payloads from orbit. Exolaunch…
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SpaceX Targets September 28 for Starship’s First Orbital Flight as Florida Pad Nears Readiness
SpaceX is targeting no earlier than September 28 for Starship Flight 14, pending regulatory approval, in what would be the vehicle’s first orbital mission after 13 suborbital flight tests. The mission is expected to carry 26 Starlink V3 satellites and comes as SpaceX moves Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center toward operational status,…
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Starship Flight 14 Targets First Earth Orbit and 26 Starlink V3 Deployments
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, September 22, 2026, for Starship’s 14th flight test from Starbase in South Texas. The mission would be Starship’s first attempt to enter Earth orbit and is planned to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites. A 75-minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. Central time, pending regulatory approval. Previous Starship tests followed suborbital…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing Team Wins First Neil Armstrong Space Prize for Pioneering Reusable Booster Landings
Purdue University presented its first Neil Armstrong Space Prize to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team on September 15, 2026, at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. Announced in April, the award recognizes the team’s development of vertical booster landings, which made repeated first-stage reuse a routine part of orbital launches. Five SpaceX employees accepted…
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SpaceX Sets Sept. 22 for Starship’s First Orbital Flight and Starlink V3 Deployment
SpaceX is targeting Sept. 22, 2026, for the first orbital flight of its Starship launch system, a roughly 10-hour mission that will deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites and send the spacecraft around Earth six times before a planned Pacific Ocean splashdown. Flight 14 is scheduled to lift off from Starbase in South Texas during a…
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Both Bound for the Moon: Why Are NASA’s SLS and SpaceX’s Starship So Different?
On one side is the orange-and-white SLS. On the other is Starship, resembling a stainless-steel tower. Both are part of the United States’ architecture for returning humans to the Moon, yet they have almost nothing in common—from their appearance and engines to how they are intended to operate. Their respective roles: SLS Block 1 and…
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SpaceX Pairs Booster 22 and Ship 42 for Flight 15 Cryogenic Testing
SpaceX has moved Super Heavy Booster 22 from Mega Bay 1 to the Massey’s test site at Starbase, where Ship 42 has joined it for cryogenic proof testing ahead of their planned pairing on Starship Flight 15. The mission could launch roughly one month after Flight 14 if the preceding flight meets its objectives and…