By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - SpaceX as soon as this month aims to launch its next Starship flight test, sending its first upgraded Starlink satellites into orbit and then returning the massive rocket system's upper stage to land for the first time, CEO Elon Musk said on the company's first earnings call Tuesday.
The goals for Starship's 14th test flight represent a major leap in the reusable rocket's development from its last test flight in July, when Starship's upper stage appeared
to demonstrate improved landing abilities over the Indian Ocean.
Musk previously said SpaceX could try an upper-stage land recovery sometime this year, and perhaps on the 14th flight depending on how well the 13th flight went.
Land-returns of that upper rocket stage, the core "ship" of Starship, are crucial to SpaceX's goal to build the world's first fully reusable orbital launch system that Musk wants to use to significantly expand the company's Starlink broadband network.
The landing test would also be watched closely by NASA, which is eager to use the rocket as a moon lander.
SpaceX is in the process of recovering the 13th test's rocket stage from the ocean for inspection, according to satellite imagery captured by Vantor. Musk said the exact timing of Starship's next flight and whether SpaceX returns the ship from the next mission to land hinges on regulatory approval.
"Assuming we receive regulatory approval to do so, we'll attempt to catch the ship with the tower on the next flight, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of this month," Musk said, adding he expects the Starship launch frequency to "increase rapidly."
A return to land would involve catching the upper stage with giant mechanical arms attached to the tower in Texas from which the rocket launched. SpaceX has recovered the rocket's Super Heavy booster using those arms three times, the last time in March 2025.
If those arms catch the upper stage, Super Heavy would land in the Gulf of Mexico, as it has done in its past five tests. But eventually Musk wants the tower to catch both stages: first Super Heavy, which will be quickly placed aside so the arms can then catch the ship some 90 minutes later, after it completes a full journey around Earth.
"Probably a year from now, we will be doing at least one flight a day, possibly more," Musk projected.
The 14th Starship flight test will aim to send to orbit the first batch of V3 Starlink satellites. Those are "expected to deliver 10 times the amount of broadband capacity and data density from our current generations," Musk said.
SpaceX ultimately aims to send 60 such Starlink satellites to space per Starship launch, it said in its IPO prospectus, and launch dozens of Starship missions carrying them.
SpaceX rocket launches of its own satellites have gradually overtaken the share of its launches for external customers as Starlink revenue soars further past SpaceX's other units, tightening U.S. launch scarcity as demand for accessing space rises.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sonali Paul)
