Super Heavy/Starship B3 • Starlink

Super Heavy/Starship B3 • Starlink

A SpaceX Super Heavy rocket will launch a Starship prototype on its 14th and first orbital flight, designated IFT-14 (Integrated Flight Test). Starship is equipped with Raptor 3 engines and will perform an orbit insertion burn, fly at an altitude approximately 275 km above Earth and complete approximately six orbits around the planet over the course of a nearly 10-hour flight, including a payload deployment of 26 Starlink V3 satellites followed by deorbit burn, for a splashdown near the coast of Chile. Super Heavy will perform an ocean landing in the Gulf of Mexico. It will have an integrated vented interstage/forward dome, three grid fins instead of the prior four, as well as the use of the grid fins as catch points. This flight is internally known as Starlink Group 31-1. The booster/ship combination is designated as B21/S41, both of the Block 3 variant. - Starlink v3 satellites are built by SpaceX and have a reported launch mass of ~2 tonnes. The mass-produced spacecraft carry a communications payload using the Ku and Ka frequency bands, plus E-band for backhaul, which will allow Starlink to provide ~10x more capacity per satellite than earlier iterations. They also employ optical inter-satellite links, phased array beam forming and digital processing technologies. Like the v2 satellites the v3 sats are equipped with more powerful Argon Hall thrusters. Starlink sats are able to track on-orbit debris and capable of autonomous collision avoidance. All satellites will be equipped with anti-reflective coatings. The updated Starlink network architecture has 1584 satellites at 550km altitude and an inclination of 53 degrees, 1584 satellites at 540km and an inclination of 53.2 degrees, 720 satellites at 570km and an inclination of 70 degrees, and 520 satellites at 560km and an inclination of 97.6 degrees. The initial FCC application covered 4408 Starlink satellites. Eventually SpaceX will launch and operate a follow-on network of 7518 additional Starlink satellites transmitting in V-band frequencies. In the final deployment stage an additional 30000 Starlink satellites might get orbited. - Delayed from late August. Webcast: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-13 https://spaceflightnow.com/

📍 Starship Orbital Launch Pad 2, 54018 TX-4, Brownsville, TX 78521, Vereinigte Staaten

🔖 WorldwideSpaceLaunches