SpaceX Has Launched its Starship Into Orbit for the First Time

SpaceX has launched its massive Starship rocket into orbit for the first time today, marking a milestone for Elon Musk’s company as it seeks to use the vehicle to expand its satellite business and support future missions to the moon.

The 14th test flight of Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. The spacecraft reached orbit at about 8:15 a.m. local time, according to a livestream of the flight.

SpaceX also deployed 26 of its newest Starlink V3 satellites during the mission.

The rocket’s booster made a “soft splashdown” off the coast of Starbase shortly after liftoff, while the Starship spacecraft continued its ascent despite one of its vacuum engines shutting down during the flight.

Starship is central to SpaceX’s plans to expand Starlink, its satellite internet business and its largest and only profitable segment as of the second quarter, according to the company.

SpaceX currently operates about 11,000 active satellites in orbit, compared with roughly 650 operated by rival Eutelsat OneWeb.

On SpaceX’s earnings call in August, Musk said, “It’s not out of the question that at some point, Starlink will deliver a majority of the world’s internet, at least in countries where we’re allowed to operate, which is the vast majority of countries.”

One Starship rocket can carry 60 of SpaceX’s Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, the company said, about 20 times the capacity of its Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX has designed Starship and its Super Heavy booster to be fully reusable and to carry more cargo into orbit at lower cost than earlier spacecraft.

None of the previous 13 Starship test flights was intended to reach orbit. For the 14th flight, SpaceX aimed to have Starship complete multiple orbits before landing off the coast of Chile.

The company is preparing Starship for a NASA mission planned for next year and intends to use the rocket to help return U.S. astronauts to the moon’s surface.

SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said earlier this month that the company also plans to use Starship to put “supercompute in space,” launching “AI compute satellites” into orbit in 2027.

The Starlink V3 satellites deployed during Monday’s flight are being produced at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington. They have solar arrays capable of generating twice as much power as previous generations and are larger and designed to transmit data faster to Starlink customers.

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