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When will Starship reach orbit for the first time?

By Adam Neely · 2026-09-19 · 5 min
Quick answer: SpaceX has pushed Starship’s Flight 14 to September 28, and this one is different: the plan calls for six full Earth orbits over about 10 hours, plus deploying…

SpaceX has pushed Starship’s Flight 14 to September 28, and this one is different: the plan calls for six full Earth orbits over about 10 hours, plus deploying the first real Starlink V3 satellites — making it the first commercially useful Starship mission, not just a test flight. Why it matters: Starship only pays for itself if it can haul real cargo to orbit and come back; a successful orbital mission with paying payloads is the moment the economics flip from experiment to infrastructure. Watch whether the ship survives reentry — that’s been the hard part.

Sources: New Scientist
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