Starlink, moon landing, and space computing power all rely on it! SpaceX (SPCX.US) Starship 14 aims to enter orbit for the first time and deploy a new generation of satellites

The Zhitong Finance App learned that SpaceX (SPCX.US) plans to launch its giant Starship rocket early on Monday local time in an attempt to launch the spacecraft into orbit for the first time.

According to SpaceX's official website, the launch window is 75 minutes, starting at 8:15 a.m. EST (7:15 a.m. local time at the Texas Interstellar Base). The launch site is located at the self-built interplanetary base in Texas.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed via email that the agency issued the “SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Flight 14 Launch and Re-entry Operation License” on September 26. With Starship's 14th test flight, Elon Musk's aerospace and defense company also plans to deploy 26 new Starlink V3 satellites.

According to information, Starships are the core carrier of SpaceX's expansion strategy. The company is counting on this giant rocket to expand the scale of its Starlink (connected business). As of the second quarter, Starlink was SpaceX's largest and only profitable sector. SpaceX currently has about 11,000 active satellites in orbit, while rival European telecommunications satellite company OneWeb has only about 650 satellites.

On SpaceX's August earnings call, Musk said, “Starlink will carry most of the world's internet traffic at some point. This is not impossible, at least in countries where we have been approved to operate, and such countries account for the vast majority.”

SpaceX successfully went public in June, setting the record for the largest IPO in history. Currently, the market capitalization is about 2 trillion US dollars.

Starship overweight rockets and boosters designed by SpaceX support complete reuse, can deliver more payloads to orbit at a lower cost, and surpass all previous spacecraft in performance. None of the previous 13 test flights had the goal of entering orbit, and in the 14th test flight, SpaceX hoped that the Starship could complete a flight around the Earth.

The company is also preparing for a major NASA test flight of the Starship next year, and plans to use this rocket to send American astronauts to the surface of the moon.

SpaceX chief operating officer Gwen Shortwell said at the All-in summit earlier this month that the company also plans to use Starships to “launch supercomputing into space” and launch an “AI computing satellite” into orbit in 2027.

This new batch of v3 satellites is manufactured at SpaceX's Redmond, Washington plant, and is equipped with solar panels that can generate twice as much power as the previous generation. The satellite is larger and more powerful, and can provide Starlink users with a faster data transmission rate than previous generations.