SpaceX's Starship launching to orbit for first time ever today

SpaceX will attempt Starship's first orbital launch on Sept. 28, with liftoff from Starbase in South Texas during a 75-minute window opening at 8:15 a.m. EDT. The fully stacked vehicle stands 407 feet tall; both the Super Heavy booster and the Ship upper stage are designed for rapid, full reusability. Starship has flown 13 suborbital test missions since debuting in April 2023; Flight 14 follows a wet dress rehearsal on Sept. 24 and marks the program's first orbital insertion attempt. The Ship upper stage measures 171 feet and will deploy 26 next‑generation Starlink V3 satellites, the opening tranche of a planned megaconstellation that Elon Musk envisions growing to about 100,000 spacecraft.

Flight operations call for Super Heavy to separate and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico roughly seven minutes after liftoff while Ship will complete six circuits of Earth and splash down off Chile nearly 10 hours later. SpaceX aims to eventually return both stages to the pad and be captured by the tower's "chopstick" arms; Super Heavy has been caught three times so far, but Ship capture remains unattempted. Key upcoming milestones beyond this flight include demonstrating on‑orbit refueling between Ships and equipping Ship with life‑support for crewed missions; NASA selected Ship as the crewed lunar lander for Artemis IV, currently targeted for 2028.