SpaceX Is Ready to Send Starship Into Orbit | This Week in Spaceflight

SpaceX is preparing to send Starship into orbit for the first time—but Flight 14 still needs regulatory approval before liftoff. Booster 21 and Ship 41 will attempt SpaceX’s most ambitious Starship mission yet. After initially entering a suborbital trajectory, Ship 41 could perform an orbital insertion burn, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites and spend several hours circling Earth before returning for a splashdown off the coast of Chile. If successful, the nearly 10-hour flight could help clear the way for a Super Heavy catch on Flight 15—and eventually the first Starship catch. We break down the entire Flight 14 mission profile, the lessons SpaceX learned from Flight 13, improvements to Super Heavy’s engines and Starship’s heat shield, and why regulatory approval is still required. Also this week: launch customers begin looking beyond Falcon 9, the United States acknowledges deploying space-control weapons, NASA stacks hardware for Artemis III, the Roman Space Telescope captures first light, and Blue Origin moves New Glenn hardware ahead of its return to flight. Topics: • Starship Flight 14 and its first orbital attempt • Booster 21 and Ship 41 • 26 Starlink V3 satellites • Starship’s orbital insertion and deorbit tests • Flight 13’s engine-ice and heat-shield lessons • Falcon 9 rideshare capacity • US weapons in space and orbital debris • Artemis III stacking • Roman Space Telescope first light • New Glenn’s return-to-flight preparations • This week’s launches and upcoming missions Download the Next Spaceflight app or visit https://nextspaceflight.com for the latest launch schedules. #Starship #SpaceX #Spaceflight Follow all upcoming launches with NextSpaceflight: https://nextspaceflight.com/ ⚡ Become a member of NASASpaceflight's channel for exclusive discord access, fast turnaround clips, and other exclusive benefits. Your support helps us continue our 24/7 coverage. Click JOIN above to get started.⚡ 🤵 Hosted by Elysia Segal. 🖋️ Written by Martijn Luinstra and Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera. 🎥 Footage from: Jerry Pike, D Wise, Space Coast Live, Jack Beyer, SpaceX, NASA, Lockheed Martin, Centre Spatial Guyanais, Exolaunch, JAXA, SEOPS, Isar Aerospace, United Stated Department of Defense/United States Air Force, United States Air Force, ESA, Blue Origin, NASA/Tyler Desjardins (STScI), NASA Goddard, Orienspace, LandSpace, CCTV, Roscosmos, Rocket Lab, CAS Space. ✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton. 💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed). 🔍 If you are interested in using footage from this video, please review our content use policy: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/conte... #Spaceflight #RocketNews #StokeSpace LDAPAABJRG2UMCU3