SpaceX plans to fly two previously recovered heatshield tiles on the upcoming Starship Flight 14, a first for the programme.

It marks an initial step toward reusing Starship’s heatshield tiles across missions.

The flight is now targeted for September 28, 2026, after a delay from September 22.

Flight 14 will use Super Heavy Booster 21 and Ship 41.

The mission aims to be Starship’s first full orbital flight.

Booster 21 completed a 33-engine static fire test, and Ship 41 completed a 6-engine static fire test ahead of launch.

Flight 14 is intended to be Starship’s first true orbital mission; earlier flights had only flown ‘passively safe’ suborbital trajectories that avoided a full orbit.

The mission plan calls for deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites during the flight.

Ship 41 is expected to complete six orbits of Earth before a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, about 10 hours after liftoff.

Unlike some earlier flights, Super Heavy Booster 21 will not attempt a catch at the launch tower; instead it is set to perform a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX said it made unspecified ‘modifications to hardware and software’ to address issues seen on the previous Starship flight.

For the first time on a Starship mission, SpaceX plans to fly two previously recovered heatshield tiles, marking an initial step toward heatshield tile reuse.

Starship launches from Starbase, SpaceX’s private launch site near Boca Chica in South Texas.

Starship is designed to be fully reusable and is central to SpaceX’s plans for satellite deployment, Moon missions under NASA’s Artemis programme, and eventual Mars missions.

The vehicle consists of the Super Heavy booster as the first stage and the Starship upper stage, both powered by SpaceX’s Raptor engines.

SpaceX delayed Starship Flight 14 from September 22 to September 28, 2026, without publicly specifying a reason.

SpaceX Starship full stack, Starbase, Texas (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 17 Pro series has officially launched in India today, following the Pro Max’s global unveiling in late August.

The Pro Max variant carries Xiaomi’s first 10,000mAh battery in a Note-series phone, alongside 100W fast charging support.

The standard Pro model is expected to feature a 6.83-inch flat OLED display at 120Hz, a Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 chipset, and a 9,000mAh battery with 67W charging.

The camera setup is expected to include a 50-megapixel primary rear sensor and a 16-megapixel front camera, along with four years of OS updates and six years of security patches.

The India launch had been anticipated for September 15 for some time, arriving during a particularly active month for smartphone launches.

The rear camera setup on the Redmi Note 17 Pro is expected to include a 50-megapixel primary sensor, paired with a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies.

Xiaomi has committed to four years of Android OS updates and six years of security patches for the Redmi Note 17 Pro series, a notable increase over previous generations.

September has been a particularly active month for smartphone launches in India, with multiple brands including Vivo, Poco, Infinix, Apple and Samsung introducing new devices.

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series has historically been among the best-selling smartphone lines in India’s competitive mid-range segment.

The phone is expected to be available through both online retailers and Xiaomi’s offline retail network across India from launch day.

Battery capacity has become an increasingly prominent selling point in the Indian mid-range smartphone market, with brands competing to offer longer battery life between charges.

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max debuted globally in late August with Xiaomi’s first 10,000mAh battery in a Note-series phone, alongside 100W fast charging support.

India’s smartphone launch had been expected for September 15 for some time, with the phone’s India debut confirmed as it went on sale today.

A Redmi Note-series smartphone (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro launch skipped the long-rumoured foldable iPhone, focusing instead on the Pro and Pro Max models priced from $1,199 and $1,299.

The new iPhones run on a 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip and carry a 48-megapixel Fusion main camera with variable aperture.

The Pro Max offers up to 30 hours of battery life, and both models now offer a 2TB storage option for the first time.

Despite heavy speculation ahead of the event, no foldable device was announced, even as Apple introduced AirPods 5 alongside the new phones.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max open September 12, with shipping beginning September 18 in more than 65 countries.

Alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, Apple also introduced AirPods 5 with upgraded noise cancellation.

Notably, Apple did not unveil a foldable iPhone at the event, despite months of speculation that a folding device would debut alongside the iPhone 18 Pro series.

The standard iPhone 18, without the Pro branding, is not expected to launch until spring 2027, following a staggered release pattern Apple introduced with recent iPhone generations.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max’s 30-hour battery life claim represents an improvement Apple attributes partly to the new 2-nanometer manufacturing process behind the A20 Pro chip.

Indian pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro has not been officially confirmed by Apple as of this report, though early estimates put it in the range of the iPhone 17 Pro’s current price of Rs 1,34,900.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max also come in new colour options, including black, light blue, glacier and burgundy.

A smaller Dynamic Island on the new models can now display up to three Live Activities simultaneously, according to Apple.

Apple’s new Reference Image feature is designed to authenticate photos as unedited and free of AI generation, addressing growing concerns about image manipulation.

A person using an iPhone, Wikimedia Commons, CC0