Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

SpaceX has posted an overview of the 14th flight of Starship. The mission is being prepared for launch as soon as Tuesday, September 22, pending regulatory approval.

The 75-minute launch window will open at 7:15 a.m. Central “Texas” Time.

As noted by SpaceX, the upcoming flight is planned to be the first to send Starship into orbit around Earth. “Flight tests until this point have intentionally flown passively safe suborbital trajectories to maximize public safety while allowing for maximum learning. By going to orbit, the next phase of developing Starship to be fully and rapidly reusable can begin.”

Primary test objective

The booster’s primary test objective on Flight 14 will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America.

“There have been several modifications to hardware and software to address issues seen on the previous flight,” explains SpaceX.

After stage separation and flip on the SpaceX Flight 13 last July, the Super Heavy booster was able to use all 33 engines on its boostback burn for the first time.

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

“In the terminal phase of the burn, the three center engines showed signs of ice clogging which triggered an early end to the maneuver. The booster went on to attempt a landing burn, with 8 of the 13 planned engines reigniting before the booster made a hard splashdown in the Gulf.

“The Super Heavy on this upcoming flight has hardware modifications to improve filtering to the engines and software changes to enhance relight reliability,” SpaceX adds.

Starlink deployments

This flight will also mark the first time SpaceX plans to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites into the constellation, delivering a payload designed to expand connectivity speeds and reliability around the globe.

Credit: SpaceX/Starlink

The Starship upper stage’s primary objectives include the first orbital insertion maneuver, the deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, a deorbit burn using a single Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry, descent, and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Starlink V3 satellites aim to greatly expand the network’s capacity and user speeds. Each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 terabits per second (tbps) of capacity to the constellation, for a total of 26 tbps of capacity added on this mission alone. That’s roughly 10x the capacity compared to a single launch of V2 mini Starlink satellites on Falcon 9.

Heatshield scans

After deploying from Starship, the Starlink V3 satellites will unfold their antennas and deploy their solar arrays and make initial contact with the ground and the rest of the Starlink constellation via radio frequency and laser links. The satellites will then begin raising their orbits with their onboard thrusters. Following their on-orbit checkouts, the satellites should begin serving customers as soon as a few weeks after launch.

“Three of the satellites have been modified with a suite of cameras to scan Starship’s heatshield and transmit imagery down to operators to continue testing methods of analyzing Starship’s heatshield readiness for return to launch site on future missions,” reports SpaceX.

Earth Orbits

SpaceX states that Starship will only execute a burn to enter orbit after the flight control team has ensured there is sufficient redundancy on hardware critical to doing the subsequent deorbit burn at the end of the mission.

Starship’s initial orbital mission is expected to fly at an altitude approximately 275 kilometers above Earth and complete approximately six orbits around the planet over the course of a nearly 10-hour flight.

Starship’s splashdown is targeted in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Chile.

Image credit: SpaceX

Heatshield upgrades

SpaceX points to several upgrades and experiments related to Starship’s heatshield that will also be tested

Some improvements were derived directly from data gathered from the Flight 13 Starship as it floated in the Indian Ocean. They include additional retention mechanisms added to tiles in areas deemed to be at highest risk of falling off during ascent, addressing recently discovered areas that offer flow paths behind tiles for plasma, and flying multiple areas with a curved tile design that has shown the ability to reduce heating in the gaps between tiles.

Two tiles recovered from Ship 40 are planned to be reflown on Ship 41, marking the first tile reuse for Starship.

Live webcast

A live webcast of the flight will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which can be watched at https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14 and on X @SpaceX.

“Coverage is planned to continue through splashdown, with the potential for hours of live views from Starship as it orbits Earth,” SpaceX states, adding that with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so keep an eye on the SpaceX account for updates.