Starship to Attempt First Orbital Flight Next Week

What happened

If all goes according to plan, Integrated Flight Test-14 or IFT-14 will orbit Earth six times, dropping off 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down in the ocean west of Chile. SpaceX will attempt to put Starship into orbit for the first time next week pending regulatory approval. SpaceX is a space company based in Hawthorne.

The company is targeting Tuesday for the launch. [ Update, Sept 17 : the date has slipped to September 28.] Starship has experienced a lot of ups and downs — literally and figuratively — since the first launch on April 17, 2023 which ended quickly in a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly or RUD.

The three spectacular “catches” of the Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower certainly rank among the highs and the two Starship explosions over the Caribbean among the lows. SpaceX has persevered throughout with a “fail fast, learn faster” philosophy.