SpaceX’s Starship rocket has reached Earth orbit for the first time, marking a major milestone for the company despite several unexpected developments during the mission.
The massive rocket lifted off from South Texas early Monday morning, with the initial stages of the launch proceeding according to plan. However, shortly after Starship’s upper stage separated from the booster, one of the spacecraft’s six Raptor engines shut down.
Although Starship was capable of continuing toward orbit with one engine unavailable, SpaceX initially called off the orbital attempt. Just a few minutes later, however, the company decided to continue with the mission. The rocket ultimately reached orbit and successfully released 26 new Starlink satellites.
Around 1.5 hours after launch, SpaceX chose to bring the upper stage back to Earth earlier than planned rather than allowing it to remain in orbit for the roughly nine hours originally scheduled.
“Flight teams will deorbit Starship safely to our pre-cleared area of the Pacific Ocean after 3 hours in orbit,” SpaceX wrote on X.
Reaching orbit represents an important step for Starship and could eventually enable SpaceX to begin using the vehicle for regular commercial missions. The achievement also moves the company closer to its longer-term objective of making the massive rocket fully reusable.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has made Starship a central focus for the company, with the vehicle playing a key role in plans ranging from NASA lunar missions to more ambitious concepts, including placing data center satellites in orbit.
Before Monday’s launch, SpaceX planned for Starship’s upper stage to complete six orbits around Earth over approximately nine hours. During that period, the spacecraft was expected to deploy 26 third-generation Starlink satellites into the company’s growing internet satellite constellation.
The Ship stage successfully deployed all 26 V3 Starlink satellites during the flight and established connections with each of them. SpaceX expects the upgraded satellites to begin providing service to Starlink customers within the next few weeks.
The latest Starlink satellites are more powerful than previous generations that SpaceX has used to build its constellation of more than 10,000 satellites. The company has said that a single Starship launch carrying V3 satellites can add roughly the same amount of network capacity as 20 launches of the V2 Mini satellites, which are deployed using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX also made progress with the Super Heavy booster, which is designed to return to the launch site after separating from Starship. A few minutes after separation, the booster traveled back toward the Gulf Coast and carried out a simulated landing over the water.
The company described it as the cleanest simulated landing it has achieved with the V3 version of Starship, which SpaceX began testing in May.
Monday’s flight marked the third test of Starship V3, with the three launches taking place roughly two months apart. It was also the second Starship launch since SpaceX became a publicly traded company in what was the largest IPO ever.
SpaceX shares initially rose by more than 1% during early Monday trading, but later moved into negative territory after the company decided to terminate the first orbital mission earlier than originally planned.
Musk has said he ultimately wants Starship, which is the most powerful rocket ever built, to conduct thousands of flights each year. To support that ambition, SpaceX recently reached an agreement with Louisiana to construct a new Starbase launch complex that will be significantly larger than its existing facility in Texas.
The company has said it plans to invest $100 billion in the Louisiana facility, with construction expected to begin next year.
