SpaceX has filed an application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for radio frequency use during Starship’s 14th test flight. The filing indicates the mission will be the rocket’s first orbital flight and will deploy next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, reports Basenor.
The filing lists September 15 as the requested launch date, according to Benzinga. SpaceX has not formally confirmed the date, so it could still shift.
The requested authorization covers Starlink V3 deployment specifically during Starship’s 14th integrated test flight. According to SpaceX, each V3 satellite is designed for a download capacity more than 10 times higher than the current Starlink fleet. The company says this will bring “unprecedented” bandwidth to American subscribers.
This is SpaceX’s second V3-related filing. On July 6, 2026, the company applied to the FCC for authorization to deploy up to 100,000 third-generation Gen3 satellites. Because of their size, only Starship can launch that many satellites—not Falcon 9. The current request is a specific launch-and-deployment authorization tied to Flight 14.
Підписуйтесь на Mediasat у Telegram: тут найцікавіші новини ТБ та телекому
The V3 satellite differs significantly from the V2 Mini units that Falcon 9 launches in batches of 20 or more. Each V3 satellite weighs roughly 2,000 kilograms—more than three times the mass of a V2 Mini. That size and mass make launching them on Falcon 9 in meaningful numbers impractical. Starship’s wider payload fairing and far greater capacity to low Earth orbit make it the only SpaceX vehicle capable of deploying V3 satellites at scale.
SpaceX published V3’s technical specifications in July. Download throughput reaches 1 terabit per second, compared with about 100 gigabits per second for V2 Mini, while uplink reaches 160 gigabits per second versus roughly 7 gigabits per second. The number of downlink beams rose from 192 to 2,048. Each satellite also carries six laser inter-satellite links running at 400 gigabits per second, up from three at 100 gigabits per second. SpaceX estimates that a single Starship launch carrying V3 satellites can add roughly 20 times more network capacity than a Falcon 9 mission carrying current satellites.
Flight 14 won’t be the first V3 deployment: in July, Starship’s 13th test flight already carried 20 functional next-generation satellites into space. At the time, SpaceX engineers confirmed radio and laser links with the satellites and downloaded key telemetry. Those satellites were launched purely for a 20-minute test sequence. SpaceX never intended to keep them in orbit, so they burned up in Earth’s atmosphere as planned once testing was complete.
What sets Flight 14 apart is that Starship itself and its payload will reach orbit for the first time, rather than remaining on a suborbital trajectory. That means the mission profile must include a full upper-stage burn, a satellite deployment sequence, and a controlled deorbit—not just a test splashdown.
SpaceX has already confirmed plans to begin regularly launching Starlink V3 satellites into orbit this year, and the pace of the FCC’s review is now one of the factors shaping the launch schedule.
