SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time

SpaceX’s mega-rocket launched from South Texas early Monday morning, and the early phases of the flight ticked the usual checkboxes for a successful launch. Shortly after the upper stage separated, though, it lost one of its six Raptor engines. Starship could still reach orbit on the remaining engines, but SpaceX initially called off the attempt, only to decide to keep pushing just a few minutes later. The rocket ultimately reached orbit and successfully deployed 26 new Starlink satellites.

About 1.5 hours into the flight, SpaceX decided to bring the upper stage back to Earth early rather than let it orbit for roughly nine hours as planned. “Flight teams will deorbit Starship safely to our pre-cleared area of the Pacific Ocean after 3 hours in orbit,” the company wrote on X.

Reaching orbit is a milestone that could let SpaceX start using Starship for regular commercial missions and move it closer to full reusability. CEO Elon Musk has oriented the entire company around Starship, which is central to SpaceX’s plans for NASA moon missions and to longer-term ideas like putting data-center satellites in orbit. Before the launch, SpaceX had planned to have the upper stage orbit Earth six times over nine hours while deploying 26 third-generation Starlink satellites — all of which the Ship stage dispensed and connected to during Monday’s flight. Those satellites, which are more powerful than SpaceX’s prior Starlink versions, are expected to start serving customers within the next few weeks; the company says one full Starship launch of V3 satellites can add as much capacity to the Starlink network as 20 Falcon 9 flights of the older V2 mini satellites.

SpaceX also made progress recovering the Super Heavy booster stage: after separating from Starship’s upper stage a few minutes into the flight, the booster returned to the Gulf coast and performed a simulated landing over water — the cleanest such landing yet for the V3 version of Starship, which began testing in May. This was the third test of Starship V3, with tests spaced roughly two months apart, and the second Starship launch since SpaceX went public in the largest IPO ever. The company’s stock rose more than 1% in early trading Monday before falling into the red after SpaceX cut the orbital mission short. Musk has said he wants Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, to eventually fly thousands of times a year; he recently signed a deal with Louisiana to build a new Starbase launch complex larger than the existing one in Texas, with the company saying it plans to invest $100 billion in the facility, with construction starting next year.

Why it matters

A successful orbital Starship flight is the clearest signal yet that SpaceX’s reusable mega-rocket is moving from test article to workhorse — the vehicle NASA’s moon program and Starlink’s next-generation buildout both depend on.