SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) has lined up what customer Space Cargo Unlimited says will be Starship’s first commercial mission, targeted for 2028 as Elon Musk pushes the giant rocket toward carrying outside customers.
Space Cargo is a Luxembourg-based company that uses microgravity for commercial research and manufacturing. Founded in 2014, it has operated three space flights, including two long-duration missions to the International Space Station.
Space Cargo told Reuters it plans to put a modular laboratory called BentoBox inside SpaceX’s Starfall capsule. The system houses customer experiments and manufacturing equipment in orbit, while Starfall brings the resulting materials back to Earth.
The 2028 mission could carry up to one metric ton of customer payloads, with nearly half of prospective customers coming from life sciences and biotechnology.
SpaceX has not publicly confirmed the timetable.
Musk has said Starship is designed for far greater scale. “With Starship, our aspirations … are to deliver well over 1 million tons to orbit per year,” he told investors in August.
Starship Moves From Internal Missions to Paying Customers
SpaceX told investors in its second-quarter filing that all Starship launches so far have been classified as internal.
The company defines a customer launch as one where an external customer’s payload is the primary payload and the mission is designed around that customer’s requirements.
CFO Bret Johnsen said Flight 14 will become Starship’s first revenue-generating flight by putting production Starlink V3 satellites into orbit.
Commercial Revenue Comes After Heavy Spending
The Space Cargo deal shows how SpaceX could eventually generate third-party revenue from Starship after years of heavy spending on the rocket.
SpaceX’s Space segment generated $1.58 billion in first-half revenue while recording a $1.20 billion operating loss and $2.23 billion in capital expenditure.
Research and development spending also increased as SpaceX ramped up production, engineering, launch and testing costs for Starship.
Traders Bet on a Launch Next Week
The next step toward that commercial future could come as soon as Sept. 22, the FAA’s current primary window for Flight 14, with Sept. 23 listed as a backup.
Polymarket traders give SpaceX a 77% chance of launching Flight 14 by Sept. 26.
The mission is expected to attempt Starship’s first orbital payload deployment, a key milestone as SpaceX works toward carrying outside customers.
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