SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for first time, deploys 26 Starlink satellites

Starship lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas on Sept. 28 on its 14th test flight since 2023. All 13 previous flights had remained suborbital.

The mission also carried Starship's first operational payload, making it the rocket's first revenue-generating commercial flight while its final design remains under development.

After separating from the Super Heavy booster and reaching space, one of Starship's three main engines shut down prematurely.

SpaceX initially said the spacecraft would not attempt to enter orbit.

Engineers later determined that Starship could fire other onboard engines to complete the maneuver, allowing the spacecraft to successfully reach its target orbit.

Once there, Starship deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites at an altitude of about 269 kilometers (167 miles).

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said all of the satellites were operating normally.

The engine problem prompted SpaceX to shorten the uncrewed mission from a planned 10 hours to about three.

The Super Heavy booster, meanwhile, returned to the Gulf of Mexico for a controlled splashdown.

Starship later made a controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean, where it flipped into a vertical position before hitting the water.

SpaceX had not planned to recover the spacecraft.

Reaching orbit is a key milestone for Starship, which SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion developing.

The spacecraft is designed to launch larger batches of SpaceX's Starlink satellites and is also central to NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon.

The V3 Starlink satellites deployed during Monday's flight can handle about 10 times more data than their V2 predecessors, according to SpaceX.

The company ultimately plans to launch them in batches of 60 aboard Starship once the rocket enters routine service.