Starship Flight 14: Starship Reaches Orbit for the First Time and Deploys 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

Update (September 28, 2026): Flight 14 flew on September 28. This article was published on September 24, before the flight, and now reports the result. The pre-flight version described SpaceX's plan and the September 28 target; the plan is kept below, labelled as the plan, so it can be compared with what happened.

What happened: SpaceX's Starship reached orbit on its 14th test flight on Monday, September 28, 2026, lifting off from Starbase, Texas at 12:48:59 UTC (7:48 a.m. Central Time), by the Launch Library 2 record. SpaceX reports that the ship performed its orbital insertion burn and "enters orbit of Earth for the first time," deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites it carried, completed a deorbit burn and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. "Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the first orbital flight of Starship!" SpaceX posted at 15:58 UTC, about 3 hours 10 minutes after liftoff. The Super Heavy booster "splashed down in the Gulf of America," SpaceX said. Before this flight, all 13 Starship test flights had "intentionally flown passively safe suborbital trajectories," in SpaceX's words.

The flight was shorter than planned. SpaceX's published plan called for about six orbits over a flight of nearly 10 hours; during the flight SpaceX posted that teams "will deorbit Starship safely to our pre-cleared area of the Pacific Ocean after 3 hours in orbit." SpaceX's posts did not give a reason for the shorter stay.

Timeline, in SpaceX's words (UTC)

Times are when SpaceX posted on X, so each event happened at or shortly before the time shown. Liftoff time is from Launch Library 2.

• 12:48:59 Liftoff from Starbase (Launch Library 2). SpaceX posted "Liftoff of Starship!" at 12:50.
• 12:53 "Starship's Raptor engines ignite during hot-staging separation. Super Heavy boosted back towards its splashdown site in the Gulf of America."
• 12:56 "Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of America!"
• 12:58 "Starship's ascent burn is complete. Starship is now on a passively safe suborbital trajectory as teams check systems to confirm we are good to proceed to orbit today."
• 13:11 "Go for orbit! Starship will soon perform a burn with a single Raptor engine to enter an ~275 km orbit of Earth."
• 13:15 "Starship performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the first time."
• 13:25 "Starship has begun deploying its payload of 26 Starlink V3 satellites. This deployment sequence will take ~30 minutes."
• 13:54 "Payload deploy complete. All 26 Starlink V3 satellites are in orbit."
• 13:57 "The Starlink team has made contact with all 26 satellites."
• 14:17 "Flight teams will deorbit Starship safely to our pre-cleared area of the Pacific Ocean after 3 hours in orbit."
• 15:04 "Deorbit burn complete. Starship is on course to reenter Earth's atmosphere ahead of a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in ~1 hour."
• 15:33 "Starship is reentering the atmosphere."
• 15:58 "Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the first orbital flight of Starship!"

How the date moved

On the public launch list SpaceNexus tracks (Launch Library 2), Flight 14's target date was September 15, then September 18, then September 22, then September 28. It flew on the fourth date, 13 days after the first. The mission page SpaceX posted on September 15 gave Tuesday, September 22, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. Central Time. On September 17, SpaceX announced on X that it was targeting Monday, September 28, "pending regulatory approval." That announcement gave no reason for the change, and SpacePolicyOnline reported the postponement without one. On September 23, SpaceX stacked the rocket on the launch pad at Starbase, Spaceflight Now reported: Ship 41 on top of Super Heavy booster B21. On September 26 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued revision 9.0 of Starship's launch license, VOL 23-129, effective the same day. On launch morning SpaceX posted a target of 7:46 a.m. Central Time, then 7:48 a.m. The full date history is on the flight's launch page.

The plan, and what happened

SpaceX's published plan, with the result SpaceX reported for each part:

• Orbit. Plan: fly at about 275 km, complete about six orbits over a flight of nearly 10 hours, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile. Result: Starship entered orbit after a single-Raptor burn, SpaceX reports, and flight teams brought it down "after 3 hours in orbit" to a "pre-cleared area of the Pacific Ocean"; SpaceX confirmed splashdown at 15:58 UTC.
• A safety gate. Plan: 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." Result: after the ascent burn the ship coasted on "a passively safe suborbital trajectory as teams check systems," then SpaceX posted "Go for orbit!" and the ship performed its orbital insertion burn.
• Payload. Plan: 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first V3 satellites SpaceX planned to deploy into its constellation. SpaceX says each adds 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of capacity, 26 Tbps for the flight, and calls that "~10x the capacity compared to a single launch of V2 mini Starlink satellites on Falcon 9." Three of the satellites were modified with cameras to scan Starship's heat shield and send the imagery to operators. Result: "All 26 Starlink V3 satellites are in orbit," and the Starlink team "has made contact with all 26 satellites," SpaceX reports.
• Deorbit. Plan: a deorbit burn using a single Raptor engine while in space, then a controlled reentry, descent and splashdown. Result: "Deorbit burn complete," then reentry and "Splashdown confirmed," SpaceX reports. Its posts did not say how many engines fired for the deorbit burn.
• Booster. Plan: a boostback burn and a landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf, at sea rather than the launch tower. Result: SpaceX said Super Heavy "boosted back towards its splashdown site" and "has splashed down in the Gulf of America." SpaceX did not say in its posts whether the landing burn was completed.
• Heat shield. Plan: extra tile retention in the areas SpaceX judged most likely to shed tiles during ascent, fixes for newly found paths that let plasma flow behind tiles, curved tiles in several areas to reduce heating in the gaps, and two tiles recovered from Ship 40 reflown on Ship 41, which SpaceX calls the first tile reuse for Starship. Result: SpaceX had not described the heat shield's condition, or released imagery from the camera satellites, in its posts on the day.

What this flight did and did not demonstrate

Demonstrated, per SpaceX: the first orbital insertion by a Starship, the first deployment of Starlink satellites from Starship into orbit, contact with all 26, a deorbit burn from orbit, and a reentry and splashdown after orbital flight.

Not demonstrated on this flight:

• No catch. No ship catch was planned: the ship's objective was a splashdown in the Pacific, and the booster's landing target was offshore in the Gulf, not the launch tower. Neither stage returned to the launch site.
• No propellant transfer. Ship-to-ship propellant transfer in orbit, which NASA's Starship lander plan depends on, was not part of this flight and has not been attempted.
• Not the full planned duration. The ship stayed in orbit about 3 hours, not the nearly 10-hour flight in the plan.

What Flight 13 left to fix

Flight 13 launched on July 24, 2026. SpacePolicyOnline reported that the ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean near Australia and remained intact, floating on the surface, and that it deployed 20 real Starlink V3 satellites on a suborbital path, where they burned up on reentry about 20 minutes after release. SpaceX says some Flight 14 heat-shield changes came directly from data gathered from the Flight 13 ship as it floated in the Indian Ocean.

The Flight 13 booster had a harder day. SpaceX says it used all 33 engines on its boostback burn for the first time, but the three center engines showed signs of ice clogging, which ended the burn early, and only 8 of the 13 planned engines reignited for the landing burn before a hard splashdown in the Gulf. The Flight 14 booster had hardware changes to improve filtering to the engines and software changes to make relights more reliable, the company says. On Flight 14, SpaceX reported that the booster boosted back and splashed down in the Gulf; its posts did not say whether the landing burn completed, so whether the relight fixes worked is not yet on the record.

Why orbit is the milestone that matters

This section combines reported facts with SpaceNexus analysis, labeled where it is analysis.

For Starlink. SpaceX has said that "Starship will deploy the more advanced V3 Starlink satellites." Flight 14 deployed 26 V3 satellites into orbit, the first V3 satellites in the constellation, SpaceX reports; the 20 released on Flight 13 were on a suborbital path and reentered. SpaceX says the satellites should begin serving customers "as soon as a few weeks after launch," after they raise their orbits and finish on-orbit checkouts. We will add the date SpaceX says they enter service.

For NASA's Moon program. NASA announced on February 27, 2026 that Artemis III, now in 2027, will test systems in low Earth orbit, including rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, and that the first landing will follow in 2028 on Artemis IV. NASA has said SpaceX plans to complete propellant loading in Earth orbit, using a storage depot filled by tanker flights, to send a fully fueled Starship lander to the Moon. (Analysis: orbit was a precondition for the rest of the lander schedule, and it has now been reached. The next precondition is ship-to-ship propellant transfer in orbit, which has not been attempted. This flight carried Starlink satellites, not a lander or tanker configuration.)

On the record. SpaceX's S-1 registration statement (May 20, 2026) said: "We expect Starship to commence payload delivery to orbit in the second half of 2026 following additional flight tests." Our Promise Ledger records that entry as met with this flight, on September 28, 2026, before its December 31 deadline.

For reusability. SpaceX writes that "by going to orbit, the next phase of developing Starship to be fully and rapidly reusable can begin." (Analysis: catching and reflying the upper stage requires a controlled return from orbit, and Flight 14's deorbit burn and splashdown were the first rehearsal of that return.)

For investors. SpaceX has been a public company since its initial public offering in June 2026. (Analysis: Starship's progress bears on its Starlink capacity plans and its NASA lander work.) Nothing in this article is a view on SpaceX shares or any other security; our SpaceX stock explainer covers how the company is structured and reports.

How it went, objective by objective

SpaceNexus analysis, based on SpaceX's stated objectives, with each result as SpaceX reported it.

1. Ascent, hot staging and the orbital insertion burn: done, per SpaceX (hot staging reported at 12:53 UTC, orbital insertion at 13:15 UTC).
2. Deployment of the 26 Starlink V3 satellites: done, 26 of 26 in orbit and all in contact, per SpaceX. The date they enter service has not been announced.
3. The deorbit burn in space: done, per SpaceX ("Deorbit burn complete," 15:04 UTC). The plan called for a single Raptor engine; SpaceX's posts did not say how many fired.
4. Reentry and a controlled splashdown in the Pacific: done, per SpaceX ("Splashdown confirmed," 15:58 UTC). The condition of the heat shield: SpaceX has not yet described it.
5. The booster's boostback and landing burns: SpaceX reported the boostback and a splashdown in the Gulf; it has not said whether the landing burn was completed.

A flight can fall short on some objectives and still give SpaceX useful data; SpaceX says its suborbital test flights were flown to maximize public safety "while allowing for maximum learning."

What to watch

• The Starlink V3 checkout over the coming weeks: SpaceX says the satellites should serve customers "as soon as a few weeks after launch."
• The heat shield. Whether SpaceX describes the ship's condition after reentry and releases the imagery from the three camera satellites.
• The booster. Whether SpaceX says the landing burn completed, which would show whether the Flight 13 relight fixes worked.
• Later flights. SpaceX's posts on the day did not give a date or objectives for Flight 15. (Analysis: the milestones NASA's lander plans depend on include ship-to-ship propellant transfer in orbit, which requires reliable orbital flights first.)

What the flight changes for Starlink, NASA's Moon plans and launch costs is in our analysis, Starship Reaches Orbit: What Flight 14 Changes.

Our Starship tracker has the full flight history, and the Starship promise tracker shows which dated promises this flight settled.

Sources

• SpaceX on X: "Liftoff of Starship!" (September 28, 2026, 12:50 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Starship's Raptor engines ignite during hot-staging separation..." (September 28, 2026, 12:53 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of America!" (September 28, 2026, 12:56 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Starship's ascent burn is complete..." (September 28, 2026, 12:58 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Go for orbit!..." (September 28, 2026, 13:11 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Starship performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the first time" (September 28, 2026, 13:15 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Starship has begun deploying its payload of 26 Starlink V3 satellites..." (September 28, 2026, 13:25 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Payload deploy complete. All 26 Starlink V3 satellites are in orbit" (September 28, 2026, 13:54 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "The Starlink team has made contact with all 26 satellites" (September 28, 2026, 13:57 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Flight teams will deorbit Starship safely to our pre-cleared area of the Pacific Ocean after 3 hours in orbit" (September 28, 2026, 14:17 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Deorbit burn complete..." (September 28, 2026, 15:04 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Starship is reentering the atmosphere" (September 28, 2026, 15:33 UTC)
• SpaceX on X: "Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the first orbital flight of Starship!" (September 28, 2026, 15:58 UTC)
• SpaceX: "Starship Flight 14" mission page (the plan, as published September 15 to 28, 2026; content API, read September 28)
• Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs): liftoff time and target date history, via the Flight 14 launch page
• FAA: Starship launch license VOL 23-129 Rev 9.0 (issued and effective September 26, 2026)
• SpaceX on X: "Now targeting to launch Starship Flight 14 as early as Monday, September 28, pending regulatory approval" (September 17, 2026)
• SpaceX on X: "Starship will deploy the more advanced V3 Starlink satellites..." (August 25, 2025)
• SEC EDGAR: Form S-1, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (May 20, 2026; page 94)
• SpacePolicyOnline: "What's Happening in Space Policy September 20-26, 2026" (Marcia Smith, September 20, 2026)
• SpacePolicyOnline: "Successful Flight for Starship IFT-13" (Marcia Smith, July 25, 2026)
• Spaceflight Now: "Super Heavy-Starship rocket chalks up mostly successful test flight" (July 25, 2026; Flight 13 launch date and time)
• Quartz: "Starship eyes its first trip to orbit with Sept. 22 launch of flight 14" (updated September 18, 2026)
• SpaceX mission content as archived September 15, 2026 (original September 22 date)
• Space.com: "SpaceX pushes next Starship launch back to Sept. 28, a 6-day delay for megarocket's 1st orbital flight" (Mike Wall, updated September 17, 2026)
• Spaceflight Now: "SpaceX stack Starship and Super Heavy for first orbital flight" (September 23, 2026)
• NASA: "NASA Adds Mission to Artemis Lunar Program, Updates Architecture" (RELEASE26-022, February 27, 2026)
• NASA: "NASA, SpaceX Illustrate Key Moments of Artemis Lunar Lander Mission" (November 20, 2024)
• CNBC: "SpaceX IPO takeaways: SPCX closes at $161, jumping 19% after record debut" (June 12, 2026)