Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the commercial spaceflight company will begin deploying the Starlink V3 constellation in September.
Starship Could’ve Had Orbital Flight Earlier
The billionaire took to the social media platform X on Tuesday, quoting a post by influencer Sawyer Merritt that detailed Starship’s 14th Flight Test, which will deliver V3 satellites and add “1 Tbps of capacity” to the Starlink constellation. “Starlink V3 constellation starts being deployed this month,” Musk said.
Musk touted increased bandwidth with the new satellites. “Ultimately, it will deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of our current 11,000 satellite constellation,” he said.
Musk also confirmed that the Starship’s next launch would be taking place on September 22. “Next Starship flight on 9/22,” Musk said, quoting a post from SpaceX’s official handle that shared updates about the Starship launch, which will go ahead “pending regulatory approval.”
The billionaire also responded to user Eric Berger on X, who hailed the Starship flight 14 announcement and called it a “huge milestone” for the company. “We could have done that long before now tbh, but are optimizing for safety,” Musk said in his response.
SpaceX is also reportedly setting a 2028 launch timeline for the Starship’s commercial operations, after Luxembourg-based company Space Cargo Unlimited said that the company intends to put its modular laboratory inside SpaceX’s Starfall capsule, which will transport goods to orbit.
Falcon 9 Sunset
SpaceX has ended planned Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with future East Coast Starlink missions expected to use Starship.
Price Action: SpaceX shares were up 0.26% at $143.78 during the overnight trading session on Tuesday.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock.com
Login to comment