SpaceX pushed Starship into a stable low Earth orbit and deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites Monday, overcoming an upper-stage engine shutdown during the rocket’s 14th integrated test flight and marking a major step beyond the suborbital missions flown since 2023.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
STARBASE, Texas — SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit and began operating as a satellite-launch vehicle for the first time Monday, deploying 26 Starlink V3 spacecraft after engineers decided the giant rocket could safely continue despite losing one of its six upper-stage engines during ascent.
The milestone moved Starship into a new phase of development after 13 previous integrated flights that deliberately followed suborbital trajectories designed to bring the spacecraft back into Earth’s atmosphere without requiring an orbital deorbit maneuver.
Flight 14 lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas at approximately 7:49 a.m. CDT, or 8:49 a.m. EDT, on Sept. 28, after a delay within the morning launch window. The fully stacked Starship and Super Heavy system stands approximately 407 feet, or 124 meters, tall.
The mission presented SpaceX with an early complication when a Raptor engine on the Starship upper stage shut down before the planned end of its ascent burn.
SpaceX initially indicated during its live broadcast that the engine loss might prevent orbital insertion. Mission controllers instead kept Starship on its initial trajectory while engineers evaluated the spacecraft’s propulsion, power, communications and other systems.
SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot initially said the spacecraft would not be able to enter orbit, then reversed that assessment after engineers determined Starship retained sufficient capability to conduct the maneuver.
That decision was particularly important because entering orbit creates a different safety problem than the suborbital profiles used during earlier Starship flights.
On those previous missions, Starship was placed on a trajectory that would naturally bring it back into the atmosphere even if its propulsion system failed after ascent. Flight 14 required the spacecraft to intentionally raise its trajectory into a sustainable orbit — meaning SpaceX also needed confidence that enough propulsion and other critical hardware remained available to bring the spacecraft back down later.
SpaceX planned Flight 14 so controllers would authorize orbital insertion only after determining that systems required for a subsequent deorbit maneuver had adequate redundancy.
After more than 20 minutes of flight, controllers conducted their assessment and approved the orbital burn.
One of Starship’s sea-level Raptor engines reignited roughly 25 minutes after launch for a short burn that raised and circularized the spacecraft’s trajectory. The maneuver put Starship into low Earth orbit approximately 26 minutes after liftoff.
It was the first time the Starship-Super Heavy system had entered a stable orbit around Earth. Reuters described the achievement as a long-delayed benchmark for the program after all 13 previous integrated flights remained suborbital.
The mission then moved almost immediately to its second major objective: delivering operational payloads.
About 34 to 35 minutes after launch, Starship began dispensing 26 next-generation Starlink V3 communications satellites from its payload bay.
The satellites were released individually at approximately one-minute intervals, with the deployment sequence lasting about half an hour. All 26 were reported deployed, marking Starship’s first delivery of operational Starlink spacecraft into stable orbit.
Previous Starship missions had demonstrated payload-deployment hardware, including releasing Starlink simulators and modified spacecraft onto suborbital trajectories. Those objects were not placed into permanent orbit and subsequently reentered the atmosphere.
Flight 14 therefore marked the first time Starship combined orbital insertion with an operational satellite deployment.
The V3 satellites are substantially more capable than the Starlink spacecraft currently launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.
SpaceX says each V3 satellite is designed to provide approximately 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity. The 26 spacecraft aboard Flight 14 would therefore represent about 26 terabits per second of potential additional downlink capacity once checked out and incorporated into the constellation.
SpaceX ultimately expects Starship to carry as many as 60 V3 satellites on a single mission.
In corporate filings this year, the company said a full 60-satellite V3 load could provide approximately 20 times the Starlink downlink capacity added by a typical Falcon 9 launch of current-generation satellites. The comparison refers to network capacity deployed per launch, not simply the number of satellites carried.
Three of the Flight 14 satellites were equipped with additional cameras intended to observe Starship’s heat shield while the spacecraft remains in orbit, giving SpaceX another source of information about the condition of the thermal-protection system before reentry.
After deployment, the V3 satellites were expected to unfold their antennas and solar arrays, establish radio and laser communications and begin raising themselves toward their operational orbits with onboard propulsion.
SpaceX has said the satellites could begin serving Starlink customers within weeks after completing their orbital checkouts.
The first stage of Monday’s flight followed a considerably shorter path.
Super Heavy Booster 21 powered the Starship stack away from Pad 2 at Starbase using its cluster of 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines.
At approximately two minutes and 20 seconds after launch, most of the booster’s engines shut down for hot staging.
Unlike conventional staging, in which the first stage’s engines stop before the upper stage ignites, Starship uses a maneuver in which the upper stage’s six Raptor engines start while it is still connected to Super Heavy. Exhaust from Starship passes through the booster’s hot-stage structure as the two vehicles separate.
The maneuver allows the upper stage to maintain continuous acceleration instead of coasting during separation.
After Starship pulled away, Super Heavy flipped around and conducted a boostback maneuver toward a designated area in the Gulf.
SpaceX intentionally did not attempt to return Booster 21 to the Starbase launch tower for capture. The company instead used the flight to test ascent, separation, return maneuvers and a simulated landing over water before committing another booster to an approach near the launch site.
The booster completed its landing burn and made a soft splashdown in the Gulf approximately seven minutes after liftoff. SpaceX did not intend to recover the vehicle for reuse.
Starship’s mission was designed to continue much longer.
SpaceX planned for Ship 41 to remain in orbit for nearly 10 hours, completing about six circuits around Earth at an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers, or 171 miles, before deliberately returning to the atmosphere.
The spacecraft’s planned orbital duration makes Flight 14 substantially longer than previous integrated Starship tests, which generally concluded in approximately an hour.
SpaceX incorporated intermediate health checks into the mission.
If engineers determine that Starship’s condition has deteriorated or that continuing through all six orbits would create unnecessary risk, the mission plan allows controllers to command an earlier return after fewer revolutions around Earth.
If the spacecraft remains healthy, SpaceX intends to restart a single Raptor engine roughly eight hours and 52 minutes after launch for an approximately 11-second deorbit burn.
Starship would then descend toward the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, encounter peak atmospheric heating, use its four aerodynamic flaps to control its fall and conduct a landing flip and engine burn shortly before a planned soft splashdown.
The complete mission was expected to end approximately nine hours and 50 minutes after liftoff.
Neither stage was scheduled for recovery on Flight 14.
That is significant because Starship’s long-term design depends on reuse of both Super Heavy and the upper-stage spacecraft. SpaceX has demonstrated catches of earlier Super Heavy versions with the launch tower but has not yet demonstrated a complete operational cycle in which both stages return and are rapidly flown again.
Flight 14 instead prioritized achieving orbit, deploying a working payload and proving Starship can intentionally leave orbit and survive the return.
Those capabilities are prerequisites for SpaceX’s larger ambitions for the vehicle.
The company plans to use Starship to launch far larger batches of Starlink satellites than Falcon 9 can carry and eventually wants the system to fly frequently enough that both the booster and ship are rapidly reusable.
SpaceX also sees Starship as the vehicle that could ultimately carry large quantities of cargo and people to the Moon and Mars.
NASA has its own interest in the program.
The agency is developing lunar landing systems with both SpaceX and Blue Origin as part of its revised Artemis architecture, and a specialized Starship is being developed as one of the vehicles intended to carry astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.
NASA changed its Artemis mission sequence in 2026.
Artemis III, planned for 2027, is now a demonstration mission in low Earth orbit rather than a lunar landing. Orion astronauts will practice rendezvous and docking operations with test versions of commercial landing systems supplied by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The SpaceX test vehicle for Artemis III will be based on Starship Version 3 and include a docking system on its nose. NASA says astronauts will not enter the Starship test article during that mission, although the flight will allow NASA and SpaceX to evaluate docking, communications and integrated spacecraft behavior.
NASA currently targets Artemis IV in 2028 for the program’s next crewed lunar landing, with commercial landers playing a central role in transporting astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface.
Before Starship can perform that role, SpaceX still must demonstrate capabilities far beyond Monday’s mission.
Those include reliably reaching orbit, repeated reentry, rapid reuse, transferring large quantities of cryogenic propellant between Starships in orbit, long-duration operation in space and eventually landing an uncrewed Starship-derived vehicle on the Moon.
Flight 14 nevertheless crossed one of the most fundamental thresholds.
Since the first full Starship-Super Heavy launch in 2023, SpaceX had repeatedly sent the vehicle into space without allowing it to settle into orbit. Monday’s flight changed that, with Starship completing an orbital insertion burn and then using that position to perform the job for which large launch vehicles are primarily built — delivering functioning spacecraft into orbit.
The remaining major test for Flight 14 is whether Ship 41 can stay healthy through its planned hours in space, restart an engine for deorbit and survive its controlled return to the Pacific.
As of the completion of the Starlink deployment Monday, Starship had already accomplished the two milestones that distinguished Flight 14 from every Starship mission before it: reaching a stable Earth orbit and placing an operational satellite payload there.
Original article
Comments