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SpaceX confirmed it has finished a full launch rehearsal for Starship ahead of its 14th test flight, targeted for September 28 with an 8:15AM Eastern launch window. The rehearsal involved fueling the rocket, running through countdown procedures and simulating a scrub before draining propellant, all without liftoff.
SpaceX is preparing to launch its fourteenth full-scale Starship test flight on Monday, pending regulatory approval. The plan calls for Starship to orbit Earth six times over ten hours at an altitude of 171 miles before attempting a soft landing, following hardware changes to the Super Heavy booster after only 10 of 13 engines relit during the last landing attempt in July.
SpaceX is targeting September 28 at 8:15AM Eastern for Starship's 14th flight, pending regulatory approval, after pushing the date back from September 22. Unlike prior suborbital tests, this flight will send Starship into orbit for six loops around Earth over 10 hours and deploy 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites into the constellation. The Super Heavy booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage will later be deorbited into the Pacific.
Italian launch provider Avio says it is fielding a wave of new customer inquiries after SpaceX told several prospective clients it would not accept new commercial Falcon 9 orders. Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said some of these spurned customers lobbied European institutions at the International Space Summit in Paris for subsidies to offset the higher cost of flying on Europe's Vega C, which reportedly runs about $60 million per launch.
SpaceX announced its 14th Starship test flight for September 22, targeting a 75-minute launch window starting at 7:15 a.m. CT. For the first time, the mission will attempt to place Starship's upper stage into Earth orbit while deploying 26 third-generation Starlink satellites.
SpaceX's Starship 40 flew a suborbital test from Starbase, Texas, to the Indian Ocean in about 65 minutes on July 24, deploying and later intentionally destroying 20 Starlink V3 satellites to validate the deployment system. Unlike prior test flights, this upper stage survived splashdown mostly intact, and SpaceX says retrieving and shipping it back to Texas will take several months.
The European Space Agency signed contracts totaling hundreds of millions of euros with three European launch startups—Rocket Factory Augsburg, PLD Space and Isar Aerospace—to fund continued development of their small launch vehicles. RFA received 186.9 million euros, PLD Space 158.9 million euros, and Isar Aerospace 197.8 million euros, mostly financed by their home nations with contributions from partner countries. A separate deal with MaiaSpace is reportedly close to finalization.
SpaceX and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry announced plans for a 125,000-acre spaceport called Starbase, Louisiana, located at Pecan Island on the state's southern coast. The site will feature five launch complexes with two pads each, plus propellant production, power generation, vehicle processing facilities, and housing for workers, giving SpaceX a third launch location alongside its Texas and Florida sites.
SpaceX has flown its last Starlink mission on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral for the foreseeable future, according to company launch VP Kiko Dontchev. Going forward, Starlink launches from Florida will be handled by the still-developing Starship rocket, dropping the site's monthly launch count from roughly eight or nine to about two. SpaceX will instead lean more heavily on its Vandenberg pad in California to keep deploying Starlink satellites.
SpaceX plans a second Starbase-style launch complex on former Exxon land in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, after a seven-year site search. The company says construction begins in 2027 with a first Starship launch targeted for 2029, though Louisiana's economic development agency projects operations starting in 2030.
SpaceX announced plans for a new spaceport, Starbase Louisiana, in Vermillion Parish, designed to support thousands of launches per year for its Starship rocket. The project, valued at $100 billion, follows a seven-year site search and is expected to create around 10,000 jobs, according to Elon Musk. SpaceX also pledged to fund coastal wetland restoration efforts alongside the state as part of the deal.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry announced that SpaceX will invest up to $100 billion to construct a large-scale Starship manufacturing and launch complex along the state's Gulf coast, near Abbeville. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell described the site as a self-sufficient spaceport featuring propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping, vehicle processing, and its own airport.