Starship Targets First Orbit With 26 Starlink V3 Satellites Aboard

The 75-minute launch window opens at 8:15 a.m. ET, or 7:15 a.m. local time, from Starbase, Texas, according to SpaceX's website. This is the 14th test flight of the rocket. It is the first attempt to send the upper stage all the way around the planet.

The Federal Aviation Administration told CNBC by email that it issued a "license authorization for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Flight 14 launch and reentry operations" on 26 September. That is two days before the attempt.

SpaceX has never tried this before. None of the 13 earlier test flights were intended to reach orbit.

SpaceX designed the Super Heavy rocket and booster to be fully reusable. The goal is to lift more cargo into orbit for less cost than any prior spacecraft, CNBC says. The company is counting on the rocket to scale its Starlink, or Connectivity, business. That segment was the largest and only profitable part of the company as of the second quarter. SpaceX operates around 11,000 active satellites in orbit today. Competitor Eutelsat OneWeb has roughly 650.

What is riding on the flight

The new V3 satellites, built at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington, carry solar arrays that generate twice as much power as prior generations. They are larger and designed to transmit data more rapidly to Starlink subscribers.

On SpaceX's earnings call in August, Elon Musk said, "It's not out of the question that at some point, Starlink will deliver a majority of the world's internet, at least in countries where we're allowed to operate, which is the vast majority of countries." That is a quote carried by CNBC, not a forecast this article can verify.

SpaceX went public in June in the largest IPO on record and is now valued at about $2 trillion, according to CNBC. The company is preparing Starship for a major NASA test flight next year. It intends to use the rocket to bring U.S. astronauts back to the moon's surface. There is a second plan in the pipeline. SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said during the All-In Summit earlier this month that the company plans to use Starship to put "supercompute in space," launching "AI compute satellites" into orbit in 2027, CNBC reported.

Elsewhere in orbit, a quieter kind of space race

The same week as the Starship attempt, the UK stood up a new military unit to defend its own satellites. Air Chief Marshal Sir Harvey Smyth announced No. III Space Effects Squadron at an inaugural UK Space Power Conference in London, The Register reported on 26 September.

Smyth said the unit will safeguard the benefits space gives to armed forces and be "capable of denying those benefits to our adversaries." He added that the RAF's headquarters at High Wycombe became Air and Space Command a few weeks ago.

The Register notes that the existing No. I Space Operations Squadron and No. II Space Warning Squadron can watch and warn of threats in space. The new unit will be able to act against them. How, exactly, is less clear. The UK has limited launch facilities and no anti-satellite missile systems, as far as The Register is aware.

"Advanced technology," including electronic warfare, is the official answer. The government uses it to "disrupt, degrade and deny hostile actions." It has formally ruled out destructive anti-satellite missile testing and works through the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. That points to ground-based jamming rather than missiles.

The MoD told The Register there was not much more that could be said, because the information is classified.

Four countries are known to have tested anti-satellite missiles: the US, Russia, China and India. Russia destroyed one of its own defunct orbiters in 2021, endangering the International Space Station. The ISS also had to manoeuvre that year to avoid debris from a Chinese test years earlier. In 2022, the UN passed a US-led resolution calling on countries not to conduct similar tests.

On the ground, a solar problem with a spatial answer

Space is also tight closer to home. That is forcing solar developers to think smaller and denser. CleanTechnica reported on 27 September on a new 11-megawatt array called Bowes Solar in Elgin, Illinois. The firm Cultivate Power built it on a 22-acre site squeezed between two residential subdivisions, high-voltage power lines, train tracks and a wetland.

Cultivate split the installation into two arrays to fit the irregular footprint and avoid the wetland. It used a high-density racking system from Planted Solar. Planted says its software-enabled racking needs about 2 acres per MWp. Community solar projects generally require 5 to 7 acres per MWp. At that conventional rate, an 11-megawatt array could not have fit into 22 acres at all.

"Developing solar on constrained parcels is a growing focus for the industry," Cultivate told CleanTechnica by email. "It's becoming more important as competitive land use drives solar onto smaller and smaller parcels."

Local coverage cited by CleanTechnica fills in the community side. Chronicle Media reported that the lower rate is distributed through the utility Commonwealth Edison. It covers the whole area, including 580 low- and moderate-income households.

Chronicle reporter Bill Dwyer wrote that the project aims to save customers 20 percent on energy charges. Cultivate officials say subscribers will save $13.9 million on their ComEd bills over the next 40 years. Property tax revenues are expected to total $2.1 million over the same period, benefiting the local school district and other agencies.

Meanwhile, the AI money question stays open

The week's least cosmic story may be the most consequential for budgets. THE DECODER reported on 26 September on an anecdote from Azeem Azhar. The British tech entrepreneur founded the research group Exponential View. He was speaking on a podcast with Nicholas Thompson of The Atlantic.

Azhar asked about 160 IT vice presidents in Las Vegas who could point to measurable AI results. Two-thirds stayed standing, more than he expected. He then asked who had results good enough to interrupt the CEO's summer vacation. About eight people remained on their feet.

Azhar's takeaway, per THE DECODER, is that companies are making progress but slowly. Whether that pace justifies current investment levels is unresolved. He points to a Boston Consulting Group survey finding that about 70 percent of CEOs worldwide say AI success matters for how they are perceived in their roles. That gives them an incentive to paint a rosier picture than reality warrants.

He calls the situation "finely balanced" and says he has no simple answer to the AI bubble question. The same could be said of Monday's launch: a licence is in hand, a window is open, and the result is not yet known.