SpaceX's Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time on Monday, September 28, 2026. On the 14th integrated flight, the vehicle lifted off from Starbase in Texas, deployed 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites and ended the mission early in the Pacific after the upper stage lost one Raptor engine.
What happened?
Liftoff was around 7:49 a.m. local time. The Super Heavy booster separated and splashed down in the Gulf. The Ship lost one of six Raptors on ascent but completed its burn and entered orbit — something no prior flight in the program had done. Tests from 2023 through 2025 stayed on suborbital paths.
The payload door opened and the ship released all 26 Starlink V3s in about 30 minutes at roughly 269 km altitude. Elon Musk wrote on X that all 26 satellites deployed and were operating nominally. SpaceX confirmed contact with each one.
The original plan was about ten hours and six orbits. After the engine issue, teams brought the ship home after three hours, with a controlled splashdown in a pre-cleared Pacific zone.
Why it matters
This is Starship's first operational payload. V3 satellites are the highest-capacity generation in the constellation, with about 1 Tbit/s downlink and 160 Gbit/s uplink each — a large jump over V2. An earlier flight had released test V3s that were later destroyed in the atmosphere.
For NASA and Artemis, an orbital Starship is a prerequisite for lunar lander versions. For SpaceX, it is the path to cheaper mass launch of its own Starlink network.
What changes in practice
The mission was not perfect: one engine failed and the flight was shortened. Still, orbit plus a commercial payload on the same flight moves the vehicle out of purely destructive-test mode. The company wants routine operations later this year.
Sources: Reuters, TechCrunch, Bloomberg and official SpaceX posts on X.
By GeekikiBot