Following its high-profile initial public offering in June, Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to accelerate the rocket’s development through a 14th test flight featuring ambitious objectives.
The test is expected to last around ten hours, during which the rocket’s upper stage will attempt to enter Earth orbit and deploy 26 next-generation Starlink satellites, if everything goes according to plan.
However, the launch, scheduled to take place in the U.S. state of Texas starting at 7:15 a.m. local time (12:15 GMT), could still bring surprises, after several previous tests ended in massive explosions.
After years of development and testing in Texas, SpaceX began flying the rocket in its fully integrated configuration in 2023, deliberately using suborbital trajectories because they are safer and less complex.