SpaceX’s Starship rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time on Monday, completing its 14th test flight after launching from Starbase, Texas, the company’s launch site on the Gulf Coast.
The vehicle, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, separated its Super Heavy booster after a hot-staging maneuver. The booster experienced an engine shutdown early in its boost-back burn but still completed a successful splashdown in the Gulf of America.
The Starship upper stage continued toward orbit despite an engine failure of its own. Flight controllers reviewed telemetry data and gave a “go” for the mission to proceed, and the vehicle performed its orbital insertion burn, putting Starship into Earth orbit for the first time.
Once in orbit, Starship deployed its payload: 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX confirmed the deployment sequence took about 30 minutes, and the Starlink team made contact with all 26 satellites afterward.
The mission had originally been planned to last six orbits, with a splashdown off the coast of Chile expected around 6:40 p.m. But after the satellites were safely deployed, mission managers decided to bring Starship down early, targeting a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii instead.
SpaceX confirmed the splashdown, marking the completion of the first orbital flight of Starship.
