SpaceX Sets Sights on Orbital Milestone as Starship Prepares for First Payload Run
Published on 09/16/2026 at 17:30 | Editorial boerse-global.de
SpaceX has penciled in September 22 for the 14th flight of its Starship mega-rocket, a mission that would mark the first time the vehicle's upper stage reaches a stable low Earth orbit rather than merely skimming the edge of space. The launch window opens at 12:15 UTC, though the attempt hinges on regulatory clearance and cooperative weather.
The flight profile calls for the upper stage to settle into an orbit roughly 275 kilometers above the planet. Across 13 prior suborbital campaigns, engineers focused largely on proving aerodynamic control and rehearsing reentry. This time the agenda shifts to something more commercially consequential: hauling revenue-generating hardware.
A Cargo Debut With 26 Satellites Aboard
Tucked inside the upper stage are 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first functional payloads the program has attempted to deploy. Each unit is designed to deliver one terabit per second of bandwidth once operational. The full test is expected to run about ten hours and span six orbits around the globe.
Recovery hardware will stay on the sidelines for this attempt. The Super Heavy booster is slated for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage is set to conclude its journey with a deorbit burn and a Pacific Ocean touchdown west of Chile. Several of the satellites carry cameras to document how the heat-shield tiles hold up as the craft punches back through the dense layers of the atmosphere.
Reaching a dependable orbit is widely viewed as the technical gateway to eventually retiring the Falcon family and fulfilling contracted lunar missions for NASA.
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Florida Buildout Signals a Broader Shift
Groundwork for the third flight of the Starship V3 generation is already well along, and the mission sits at the center of a wider overhaul of launch operations. According to Kiko Dontchev, a vice president at SpaceX, future Starlink missions launching from Florida will migrate entirely to Starship.
Three dedicated launch towers are under construction in the state to support that transition — one at Launch Complex 39A and two at SLC-37. SpaceX is targeting a first routine Starship liftoff from Florida before the end of 2026. Meanwhile, the company is steadily shifting its legacy Falcon 9 Starlink launches toward the West Coast, a move meant to free up East Coast pads for the far larger vehicle.
Crewed Side Hits a Snag
Not everything is running to schedule. Preparations for a four-person crewed flight were disrupted when nitrogen tetroxide — the oxidizer used in the spacecraft's steering thrusters — leaked during ground work. That mission has now slipped to no earlier than September 30, 2026.
Revenue Ambitions Stretch Beyond Launch
Alongside its flight operations, SpaceX is courting fresh income streams. Chief financial officer Bret Johnsen recently flagged agreements in the AI hosting space, with monthly billing set to kick off in December. Management's stated goal is to push the annualized revenue rate to $100 billion by the end of 2026, and plans are on the table to test orbital data centers starting in 2027.
Wall Street remains receptive to the long-term story. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "Buy" rating with a $300 price target, citing sustained user growth at Starlink and the eventual earnings potential of space-based IT infrastructure. Cathie Wood of ARK Invest has likewise underscored the leverage future Starship flights could provide, arguing that full reusability would dramatically cut transport costs. SpaceX has pegged development spending on the launch system at more than $15 billion.
Market Reaction
Investors greeted the orbital plans with enthusiasm. The stock climbed 5.1% to EUR 130.62 on the day of the announcement. In earlier pre-market trading it had changed hands at EUR 125.00, a gain of 0.6%, putting the shares 7.4% above their 50-day average of EUR 116.44.
Should the satellites deploy as planned on September 22, it would stand as the decisive proof that the new heavy-lift system is ready for commercial duty.
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