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Starlink Group 31-1 (Starship Flight 14)

SpaceX · Starship V3 · Orbital Launch Pad 2, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

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Where it was visible

Daytime launch: visible as an exhaust trail near the pad.

  • South Padre Island, TX13 kmESE, up to 66° from T+0:30Exhaust trail in daylight
  • Brownsville, TX36 kmENE, up to 33° from T+0:30Exhaust trail in daylight
  • McAllen, TX109 kmENE, up to 23° from T+1:00Exhaust trail in daylight
  • Corpus Christi, TX202 kmE, up to 33° from T+1:00Exhaust trail in daylight
  • Monterrey, Mexico318 kmENE, up to 12° from T+1:30Exhaust trail in daylight
  • San Antonio, TX403 kmESE, up to 19° from T+2:00Exhaust trail in daylight
  • Houston, TX454 kmSE, up to 40° from T+2:00Exhaust trail in daylight
  • New Orleans, LA823 kmNNW, up to 58° from T+3:00Exhaust trail in daylight
  • Birmingham, AL1,302 kmSW, up to 53° from T+4:00Exhaust trail in daylight
  • Nashville, TN1,499 kmSE, up to 39° from T+5:00Exhaust trail in daylight

Estimates from a typical ascent toward the likely orbit. Real trajectories, cloud and haze vary; the farther away, the lower and shorter the view.

Mission

14th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. 3rd flight of Starship V3 and the first Starship flight to deploy satellites (a group of Starlink satellites known as Starlink Group 31-1) into stable Low Earth Orbit. The ship is expected to fly at an altitude approximately 275 km above Earth and complete approximately 6 orbits around the planet for nearly 10 hours, with splashdown targeted in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile. The booster’s primary test objective on Flight 14 will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf. Starship will deliver 26 Starlink V3 satellites to orbit for the first time, which aim to greatly expand the network's capacity and user speeds. Each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 Tbps of capacity to the constellation.

Launch time (UTC)
Sep 28, 12:48 UTC
Precision
Second
Window
Sep 28, 12:15 UTC – Sep 28, 13:30 UTC
Orbit
LEO
Mission type
Communications
Pad
Orbital Launch Pad 2

Rocket · Starship V3

Third development version of the Starship reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle.

Height
124.4 m
Diameter
9 m
Liftoff mass
5,250 t
Liftoff thrust
80,807 kN
To LEO
100,000 kg
Track record
3 / 3 successful
Success streak
3
First flight
2026-05-22
Reusable
Yes

Booster

  • Booster 21 — first flight. Landing (Ocean) on Gulf of Mexico: landed.

Mission timeline

  1. T−50:00GO for Prop Load
  2. T−36:33Stage 1 LOX Load
  3. T−35:00Stage 1 LNG Load
  4. T−34:13Stage 2 LOX Load
  5. T−34:11Stage 2 LNG Load
  6. T−21:40Engine Chill
  7. T−02:50Stage 1 Propellant Load Complete
  8. T−02:10Stage 2 Propellant Load Complete
  9. T−00:30GO for Launch
  10. T−00:17Flame Deflector Activation
  11. T−00:03Ignition
  12. T−0Excitement Guaranteed
  13. T−0Liftoff
  14. T+00:58Max-Q
  15. T+02:20MECO
  16. T+02:22Stage 2 Separation
  17. T+02:27Booster Boostback Burn Startup
  18. T+03:07Booster Boostback Burn Shutdown
  19. T+06:35Stage 1 Landing Burn
  20. T+07:01Stage 1 Landing
  21. T+08:11SECO-1
  22. T+25:28Orbital Insertion Burn Start
  23. T+25:47Orbital Insertion Burn End
  24. T+34:18Payload Deployment Sequence Start
  25. T+1:04:50Payload Deployment Sequence End
  26. T+8:52:18Deorbit Burn Start
  27. T+8:52:29Deorbit Burn End
  28. T+9:28:52Atmospheric Entry
  29. T+9:47:30Starship Transonic
  30. T+9:48:07Starship Subsonic
  31. T+9:50:11Starship Landing Burn
  32. T+9:50:13Landing Flip
  33. T+9:50:21Starship Landing Burn Shutdown
  34. T+9:50:28Starship Landing Burn Shutdown
  35. T+9:50:30Starship Landing

This is the 233rd orbital launch attempt worldwide this year, SpaceX's 113th launch this year, the 3rd launch from Orbital Launch Pad 2.

Launch time changes · 1

  1. Sep 28, 10:46 UTC Slipped +32m to Sep 28, 12:46 UTC