SpaceX is targeting September 28 for Starship’s first orbital flight. Flight 14 will carry 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and SpaceX plans to land both stages in the ocean. This early test configuration assigns the full construction cost of Booster 21 and Ship 41 to one mission while using less than half of Starship’s stated satellite load.

This analysis compares how full SpaceX's Falcon rocket flies for outside customers with how tightly the company packs its own Starlink missions, and traces what that gap does to the price of each kilogram. It also looks at why a spacecraft can run out of room before the rocket reaches its mass limit, and how much cargo a larger rocket like Starship needs to carry to spread its flight cost.