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SpaceX puts Starship into orbit for the first time, then cuts the flight short

On its 14th full test, the giant rocket reached Earth orbit and released 26 new Starlink satellites, but lost an engine on the way up and came down hours earlier than planned.

· from 4 sites

What happened

SpaceX launched Starship from its Starbase site in south Texas on the morning of Monday, September 28, with the launch window opening at 7:15 a.m. local time, according to Spaceflight Now. For the first time in the programme, the upper stage did not stop short on a suborbital path: it went all the way into orbit, climbing to about 275 kilometres and reaching roughly 28,000 kilometres an hour, Fortune reported.

The ship carried 26 third-generation Starlink satellites on a mission SpaceX called Starlink 31-1, and released them one after another about half an hour into the flight. TechCrunch reported that all 26 made contact with the ground and should begin serving customers within weeks. Three of them carried cameras to film the heat shield tiles on the ship itself, Spaceflight Now said.

An engine lost and a shorter flight

The flight did not go entirely to plan. Shortly after the upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster, one of its six Raptor engines stopped, TechCrunch reported. SpaceX first stood down the attempt to reach orbit, then went ahead a few minutes later once controllers were satisfied that the rest of the vehicle was working normally.

The mission had been designed to last around ten hours, circling the planet about six times before a short braking burn and a controlled splashdown off the western coast of South America. Instead SpaceX brought the ship down early. The reports differ on the timing: TechCrunch put its time in orbit at about an hour and a half, while Fortune said the flight ended after roughly three hours and a couple of orbits. They also differ on where it came down, with Fortune pointing to the Pacific north of Hawaii and Al Jazeera to waters near Chile.

Elon Musk said the team was being extremely cautious, explaining that debris falling on people would quickly cost SpaceX public support. The booster, meanwhile, fell into the Gulf of Mexico minutes after launch as planned; neither stage was meant to be recovered on this flight.

Why it matters

Reaching orbit is the step the programme had been missing. The 13 full-scale flights before this one either failed or only brushed the edge of space, Al Jazeera noted. This was also the third flight of the larger V3 version of the rocket, which TechCrunch said began testing in May.

NASA depends on the result. Al Jazeera reported that a version of Starship is due to serve as the lunar lander for Artemis III, which could fly as soon as summer 2027, and that later missions from 2028 will alternate between Starship and the Blue Moon lander. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman welcomed the flight, calling it safe, responsible and inspirational, according to Fortune.

For Starlink the stakes are commercial. The new satellites join about 11,000 already in orbit, and Spaceflight Now said later flights could carry up to 60 V3 satellites at a time. TechCrunch noted that this was only the second Starship launch since SpaceX became a public company, and that its shares rose in early trading before slipping when the ship was brought down early.

What comes next

The next flight could try to catch the upper stage on its return rather than drop it in the ocean, Spaceflight Now reported. TechCrunch added that the company plans to begin building a second Starbase facility in Louisiana next year.

Key points

  • Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time on its 14th full-scale test flight, launched from Texas on September 28.
  • It released 26 Starlink V3 satellites, all of which contacted the ground, according to TechCrunch.
  • An upper-stage engine failed after separation, and SpaceX ended the planned ten-hour mission hours early.
  • Sources differ on how long the ship stayed in orbit and on where in the Pacific it came down.
  • The result matters for NASA, which plans to use Starship as the lunar lander for Artemis III as soon as 2027.

Sources

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