SpaceX scheduled Starship Flight 14 for September 28, 2026, with a launch window from 12:15 to 13:30 GMT. The plan called for Starship’s first orbital attempt, deployment of 26 Starlink V3 satellites and ocean landing attempts for both Starship and its Super Heavy booster.
The planned orbit, payload and return
The flight plan targeted an orbit about 275 km above Earth, roughly six circuits of the planet and a mission lasting nearly 10 hours. After deploying the satellites, Starship was to use a single-Raptor deorbit burn, reenter under control and splash down in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile. Super Heavy was to attempt an offshore landing in the Gulf of America.
How the orbital profile differs from earlier tests
The first 13 Starship test flights followed passively safe suborbital paths. A suborbital flight does not complete an orbit; Flight 14’s plan instead called for Starship to enter orbit before beginning its return.
Before the planned orbital-insertion burn, the upper stage was to spend about 20 minutes assessing systems needed for the return. If a problem appeared, the plan allowed SpaceX to skip the burn. That decision point made the return-critical systems part of the mission’s orbital attempt, not just its landing sequence.
Changes after Flight 13
During Flight 13’s booster boostback, SpaceX reported signs of ice-related clogging in three center engines. Eight of the 13 engines planned for the landing-burn attempt relit. SpaceX said Super Heavy’s Flight 14 hardware included changes to improve engine filtering, alongside software changes intended to make engine relights more reliable.
