Technology
Starship to fly reused heatshield tiles for the first time
SpaceX has pushed back Starship Flight 14, the rocket’s first attempt at a full orbital mission, from September 22 to September 28, 2026, after moving Super Heavy Booster 21 to the launch pad at Starbase, Texas.
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