Starship’s upcoming missions: Waiting on Orbit, Building toward the Cape

3 min read · reported by NASASpaceflight

SpaceX is now targeting Starship Flight 14 no earlier than Monday, September 28, pending regulatory approval. The flight is planned as Starship’s first orbital mission.

If that flight goes well, Flight 15 becomes the first realistic opening for a ship catch and, in the best case, a double catch. Flight 16 remains the best-case first launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, with this mission now internally cited as launching from 39A, according to KSC workers.

After 13 suborbital tests, SpaceX intends to place Ship 41 into a sustained orbit at about 275 kilometers, complete roughly six revolutions over nearly 10 hours, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and then deorbit for a splashdown in the Pacific west of Chile.

Super Heavy Booster 21 is not scheduled for a tower catch. Its job is boostback, a landing burn, and a controlled splashdown in the Gulf, with hardware and software changes meant to improve engine filtering and relight reliability after Flight 13.

Orbit, payload deployment, and a controlled reentry are the immediate gates, and later flights will be judged against those results.

Over on the East Coast, pad work at the Kennedy Space Center is already aligned with that sequence. The historic LC-39A was originally built in the 1960s for Saturn V, sent Apollo 4 off the pad in November 1967, and launched Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. Twelve of the 13 Saturn V missions that flew used the LC-39 complex.

Saturn V (SA-511) launches Apollo 16 to the Moon from KSC 39A, April 16, 1972. #SaturnSaturday pic.twitter.com/9IxoIIU3hr

— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) January 1, 2022

The same pad later supported 82 of 135 Space Shuttle flights before Atlantis closed the era in 2011.

NASA leased the site to SpaceX in 2014 via a deal brokered by Space Florida. Falcon 9 first flew from 39A on CRS-10 in February 2017, Falcon Heavy debuted there in 2018, and Crew Dragon Demo-2 returned crew launch to the pad on May 30, 2020. Starship is the next vehicle assigned to that historic launch site.

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Major construction at 39A now appears complete. The tank farm was active on three days this week, and on September 8 every major vent was in use as the farm stored, subcooled, and pumped LN2, LOX, and methane to the pad for testing and launch operations.

On the tower, the left chopstick actuator was removed September 1 and reinstalled September 10. Those actuators let the arms move independently for stacking and catching, and SpaceX’s newer chopsticks use electromechanical actuators rather than the hydraulic pistons on Pad 1, a change expected to improve response time and control. The ship quick-disconnect arm also completed load testing later in the week. The SQD does not see chopstick-level loads, but it does carry the mass of propellant in the lines, so the test is meant to confirm the arm can hold that strain and take heavy side forces.

After the actuator went back in, the chopsticks were rotated and shifted, consistent with preparations for the first vehicles at the Cape.

On September 12, SpaceX opened 39A’s tower vent for the first time, a sign that chilldown of the ground support equipment feeding the ship, including the SQD and its umbilicals, is underway. The vent also purges residual air and vapor from the lines after construction, when debris in the GSE or a vehicle is a launch-ending risk. Opening it is the clearest indication yet that 39A is moving from construction site to operational pad.

Separate from the pad itself, NSF’s Space Coast Live cameras recorded a Gigabay work stand and a ship horizontal-transport aft frame on a barge bound for Starbase. The frame is likely intended for the first Starship shipped from Texas to the Cape aboard the transport barge You’ll Thank Me Later, which now carries that name on its hull. Flight 14 still needs a license and a clean countdown. Flight 15 still has to justify a catch attempt. A first launch from LC-39A by the end of 2026 remains a best-case path.

SpaceX will likely want to send Booster 22, caught on Flight 15, to KSC. If there are problems recovering Flight 15’s vehicle and they still intend Flight 16 to be Starship’s debut from Pad 39A, they could instead send a new booster to the East Coast.

Featured Image: Credit: Max Evans for NSF.

Reported by NASASpaceflight. Reproduced unedited by Everything Space. View the original →