Starship Reaches Orbit for the First Time on a Dramatic Flight 14

SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time on Sept. 28, lifting off from Starbase, Texas, at 7:48 a.m. CT and deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites despite losing one of the upper stage's six engines during ascent. SpaceX then cut the planned 9-hour-50-minute flight to 3 hours and 8 minutes, and the ship splashed down intact in the Pacific before tipping over and exploding.

A Launch That Almost Stopped Short

Starship and its Super Heavy booster, the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas at 8:48 a.m. EDT (7:48 a.m. CT), Space.com reported. It was the program's 14th test flight and the third to use Version 3 of the vehicle.

During ascent, one of the six engines on Ship, the upper stage, shut down too early. The Associated Press, via Fortune, reported that the failure nearly kept Starship from orbit. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot even announced that the orbital attempt was called off, before flight controllers reversed course, according to Space.com.

"We are not giving up yet," Huot said. "We will continue to hang out."

With everything else working and the failed engine no longer needed, controllers decided after several tense minutes to proceed. About 25 minutes after liftoff, Ship briefly fired a single one of its Raptor engines to enter orbit.

"Starship is orbital," mission control announced, to cheers at Starbase. "First orbital flight of Starship successful!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X.

Meanwhile, the Super Heavy booster made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff. It was never meant to return to Starbase on this flight.

26 Starlinks, Three of Them With Cameras

Reaching orbit was only half the goal. Ship carried 26 of SpaceX's next-generation Starlink V3 broadband satellites and deployed them over roughly 30 minutes, starting about 34 minutes into the flight, Space.com reported. Fortune noted they join the roughly 11,000 older Starlink satellites already providing internet service.

This is a meaningful step up from Flight 13 in July, when Ship deployed V3 Starlinks on a suborbital path, a trajectory that does not complete a full orbit, so the satellites soon fell back to Earth.

Three of the 26 satellites carried cameras, which they used to photograph Ship. SpaceX engineers will study the images to improve Ship's heat shield, the protective tiles that let the vehicle survive the fiery return through Earth's atmosphere.

Why the Flight Was Cut Short

SpaceX had planned for Ship to complete about six orbits and splash down off the coast of Chile 9 hours and 50 minutes after launch, at an altitude of about 170 miles (275 kilometers). Instead, mission controllers shaved nearly seven hours off the flight. Fortune reported that the decision came soon after the Starlink deployment and that no reason was provided.

Ship began reentering the atmosphere about 2 hours and 40 minutes after launch and slowed below the speed of sound 26 minutes later. It splashed down intact in the northern Pacific, north of Hawaii, 3 hours and 8 minutes after liftoff. It then toppled over and exploded when it hit the waves.

SpaceX's broader caution has an explanation. Musk has said SpaceX wants to be sure everything works before flying Starship back over land to Starbase. Speaking at a business summit earlier this month, he said that if the spacecraft broke apart over land and rained debris onto people, "our popularity would diminish very rapidly." He added: "That's why we're being extremely cautious here," according to the Associated Press report published by Fortune. Musk made those remarks before Flight 14, and SpaceX has not said whether the same concern drove Monday's decision to end the flight early.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on reaching orbit and "managing every step in a safe, responsible and especially inspirational way."

What Starship Still Has to Prove

Starship stands 407 feet (124 meters) tall and can carry more than 100 metric tons to Earth orbit, according to SpaceX's specifications cited by Space.com. Both stages are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, which is central to SpaceX's goal of lowering launch costs. Several major milestones remain:

• Catching Ship with the tower. SpaceX plans to catch both stages with the launch tower's "chopstick" arms. It has caught Super Heavy on three test flights but has never attempted a catch of Ship. Depending on findings from Flight 14, the next Starship could try it. Musk gives the catch even or slightly better odds, and if it works, SpaceX plans to refly the spacecraft by year's end or early next year, according to Fortune.
• Refueling in orbit. Missions to the moon or Mars will require multiple "tanker" launches to refill Ship in Earth orbit. SpaceX has not yet demonstrated propellant transfer in space.
• Crew readiness. SpaceX will need to install life-support systems and fly Starship successfully many times before putting astronauts aboard.

The Artemis Connection

NASA has selected Starship as a crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program. According to Fortune, Artemis III, coming as soon as next summer, is planned as a docking exercise in Earth orbit involving an Orion capsule with astronauts and competing lunar landers, including Blue Origin's Blue Moon and Starship. Artemis IV, slated for no sooner than 2028, would land astronauts on the moon in whichever lander is ready first.

SpaceX is also expanding its launch infrastructure. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and a third is planned for Louisiana, Fortune reported.

"We are not giving up yet," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said after an engine failure nearly scrubbed the orbital attempt. "We will continue to hang out."

Why It Matters

• Orbit changes what Starship can do. Reaching orbit and deploying working satellites moves Starship from a test vehicle toward an operational launcher.
• Engine-out resilience is now demonstrated. Starship reached orbit even after losing one of Ship's six engines on ascent.
• Reuse is still the big unknown. A Ship tower catch and orbital refueling are the milestones that determine Starship's economics and its role in Artemis.
• Caution is part of the plan. SpaceX gave no reason for shortening the flight, but Musk has said the company is being "extremely cautious" before it flies Ship back over land.