SpaceX is carrying out one of the most important tests in the history of Starship today, Monday, September 28. The giant spacecraft was launched at 3:48 p.m. Greek time from the company’s facilities at Starbase in South Texas, aiming to complete its first orbital flight.

The launch will mark Starship’s 14th flight since its first test in April 2023. To date, all missions have been suborbital, meaning they have involved flights into space but without reaching the speed required to enter orbit, approximately 28,000 kilometres per hour.

Watch live:

Starship’s 14th flight is set to launch on Monday, Sept 28. The 75-minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. CT. Live coverage of the mission starts ~35 minutes before launch → https://t.co/uQKQvgaTmJ

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With a total height of approximately 124 metres, Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. It consists of the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft, both of which are reusable.

During Flight 14, the 52-metre-tall Starship will attempt to complete six orbits around Earth while also deploying 26 Starlink Version 3 satellites, which are intended to become the first satellites in a new large constellation in low Earth orbit.

Almost ten hours after launch, Starship is expected to return to Earth and make a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile. The Super Heavy rocket will complete its part of the mission approximately seven minutes after liftoff, with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

As far as the goals of space exploration are concerned, today’s test, although significant, is not the end of the journey: SpaceX will subsequently have to demonstrate the safe transfer of fuel between spacecraft in orbit, as future missions to the Moon and Mars will require multiple fuel transfers from specialised “tanker” spacecraft.

At the same time, Starship will need to be equipped with a life-support system before crewed missions can begin. That prospect is not far off: NASA has selected Starship as the first crewed lunar lander for the Artemis programme, with the goal of returning humans to the Moon in 2028 as part of the Artemis IV mission.

Today’s flight, therefore, is more than just another test. It is a critical step toward determining whether Starship can move from the experimental flight stage into the era of regular space missions.