SpaceX plans first Starship orbital flight next week

SpaceX plans to send its Starship rocket into orbit for the first time next week, with liftoff scheduled from Texas at 7:15 a.m. local time, 1215 GMT, on Tuesday.

The company co-founded by Elon Musk said the test flight would be the 14th Starship flight and would also seek to deliver 26 Starlink satellites.

SpaceX described the planned orbital flight as a new phase for Starship, its largest and most powerful rocket. It said previous flight tests had used suborbital paths intended to maximise public safety, and that reaching orbit would begin the next stage of work toward making Starship fully and rapidly reusable.

Several earlier Starship test flights have ended in explosions. SpaceX has not yet demonstrated some milestones it says are needed before Starship can be used for commercial flights or travel to the Moon or Mars, including refuelling in space.