New Scientist, writing on 18 September, said SpaceX's next Starship flight would be the first to circle Earth and the first to release working Starlink V3 satellites, with a window opening at 07:15 CDT on 22 September. India Today's science desk, the next morning, said the company moved that window to 28 September without a public explanation, still describing a first orbital try from Starbase.
Science··Evening
Thirteen flights stayed suborbital; Flight 14 is written as the first loop
Matthew Sparkes wrote on 18 September that Starship, stacked on a Super Heavy V3 booster, would orbit Earth for the first time within days. All thirteen prior tests, including the 24 July launch, stayed at best suborbital. The same piece said a launch window would open at 07.15 CDT (13.15 British summer time) on 22 September and that releasing working Starlink V3 satellites would make the flight the first commercially useful Starship mission. India Today's science desk, updating on 19 September, still treats Flight 14 as the first attempt to reach orbit after those thirteen flights since April 2023, while saying SpaceX slipped the attempt by six days to 28 September and gave no public reason.[1], [2]
The written profile is six loops near 275 kilometres, then a Pacific splashdown
New Scientist said the planned path would send Starship on about six Earth orbits over ten hours at roughly 275 kilometres, with re-entry and a Pacific splashdown west of Chile still ahead of any flown result. India Today, citing a SpaceX post dated 17 September, repeated that altitude and the roughly six orbits in nearly ten hours, added a 75-minute window opening at 17:45 IST on the new date, and said the Super Heavy booster would return toward the Gulf of Mexico if the profile holds. Both desks treat those numbers as the company's stated plan, not as a completed flight.[1], [2]
Starlink V3 would make the loop the first paid Starship job, if it flies
New Scientist framed the Starlink V3 deployment as what would make Flight 14 the first commercially useful Starship mission, not merely another envelope test. India Today kept that payload in the same first-orbit story while stressing that the new 28 September window still needed regulatory approval. Neither desk saw the stack leave the pad; the tension on 19 September is the slipped clock against an unchanged claim that this flight, unlike the thirteen before it, is meant to close a loop around Earth and drop working satellites.[1], [2]
