SpaceX’s Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time Monday and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, giving the massive rocket its biggest breakthrough yet after years of test flights. The mission marked both Starship’s first trip into orbit and its first deployment of operational satellites.
Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas on its 14th flight test. One of the spacecraft’s Raptor engines shut down earlier than planned during ascent, briefly putting the orbital attempt in doubt. Flight controllers ultimately determined the spacecraft could continue, and Starship completed its orbital insertion burn.
Once in orbit, Starship released all 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX says each V3 satellite is designed to add 1 terabit per second of capacity to the Starlink network. The deployment was particularly important because earlier Starship flights carried test payloads or followed suborbital trajectories. Flight 14 demonstrated that Starship could reach orbit and deliver working satellites.
The engine problem did change the rest of the mission. SpaceX had planned for Starship to remain in space for nearly 10 hours and complete about six orbits before splashing down west of Chile. Instead, the company shortened the flight to roughly three hours and brought the spacecraft down in a controlled splashdown in the Pacific north of Hawaii. The engine issue could also add pressure to Starship’s development schedule as NASA works toward future Moon missions that are expected to rely on a version of the spacecraft.
The Readovia Lens
Reaching orbit changes the Starship story. SpaceX is no longer trying only to prove that the enormous rocket can survive increasingly difficult test flights. Starship has now reached orbit and delivered operational satellites, moving it closer to becoming a working launch system. The engine failure shows there is still considerable work ahead, particularly before Starship can support astronauts and NASA’s lunar plans, but Flight 14 crossed a milestone the program had been working toward for years.
