Standfirst: SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time Monday. The company ended the flight early after an engine loss.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time Monday, a milestone for the company’s 14th test flight of the vehicle, though SpaceX cut the mission short and brought the spacecraft down hours earlier than planned. The uncrewed rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas, and lost one of its engines minutes into ascent, prompting a pause before flight controllers confirmed the spacecraft was cleared to continue toward orbit. Starship completed an orbital burn using a single Raptor engine and reached orbit about 26 minutes after liftoff, according to Fox Business.
The flight marked Starship’s first attempt to reach orbit after 13 earlier test flights that ended in suborbital splashdowns roughly an hour after launch. SpaceX had planned a roughly 10-hour mission that would have carried the spacecraft around Earth six times before a Pacific Ocean splashdown. Instead, the company opted to end the flight after about three hours in orbit, and Starship splashed down in the Pacific around midday. While in orbit, the spacecraft deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X were operational.
Starship is central to SpaceX’s long-term ambitions. NASA has selected a version of the spacecraft to serve as a lunar lander for future Artemis astronauts, and the company has said it intends to eventually use a fleet of Starships to carry people to Mars. Monday’s flight followed SpaceX’s recent unveiling of a planned $100 billion launch site expansion in Louisiana, which the company has said is expected to create thousands of jobs.
Sources: This report is based on information from Fox Business, Reuters and SpaceX.