WorldPosted at: Sep 28 2026 9:21PM


SpaceX's next-gen Starship completes major milestone as it reaches Earth orbit

Starbase, Sep 28 (UNI) SpaceX's Starship completed a major milestone on Monday as it reached Earth's orbit for the first time, marking a significant development in the company's next-generation launch system despite an engine shutdown during the flight.
The 124-metre (407ft) Starship lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas on its 14th flight test.
Unlike the programme's previous 13 flights, which followed suborbital trajectories, Monday's mission was designed to place the spacecraft into orbit and demonstrate its ability to carry operational payloads.
The vehicle's launch was not without challenges as it encountered a problem during its ascent when one of Starship's six Raptor Vacuum engines shut down.
SpaceX said the spacecraft was able to continue on the remaining engines and complete its planned orbital trajectory.
Starship then deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites carried aboard the vehicle, marking the first time the next-generation satellites had been placed into stable low Earth orbit. SpaceX said the satellites were operating normally after deployment.
The V3 satellites are designed to offer substantially greater capacity than earlier generations. SpaceX says each is designed for about 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of downlink capacity, allowing the company to expand the Starlink network with far more bandwidth per launch.
The company's materials show that a Starship could eventually carry up to 60 V3 satellites on a single launch, compared with 27 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9. That would give Starship more than 20 times the bandwidth deployed per launch, according to SpaceX.
The satellites use upgraded communications systems, including new beamforming technology, and will deploy antennas and solar arrays after separation before raising themselves towards their operational orbits using onboard propulsion.
The mission is a major step in SpaceX's effort to turn Starship into a fully reusable system capable of carrying large payloads to orbit and supporting future missions to the Moon and Mars. As per the company, the vehicle is a reusable transportation system designed for crew and cargo missions to Earth orbit and beyond.
NASA is also relying on a modified Starship for its Artemis programme. SpaceX has been developing the vehicle as a human landing system for future lunar missions, making progress towards orbital operations important for both the company's commercial plans and NASA's lunar ambitions.
The Super Heavy first-stage booster was not recovered on Monday's mission. SpaceX's longer-term goal is to recover both stages and eventually catch them with the launch tower. The company has already demonstrated tower catches of Super Heavy on earlier flights, while Starship itself has yet to be caught.
The flight is the latest step in a gradual expansion of Starship's capabilities. On its 13th test flight in July, the vehicle successfully deployed 20 V3 Starlink satellites and demonstrated an in-space Raptor relight, but remained on a suborbital trajectory. Monday's mission moved the programme into orbital operations for the first time.
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