Lead

SpaceX took Starship to orbit for the first time last week and deployed 26 third-generation Starlink internet satellites. The mission marked the rocket’s first launch of operational satellites into low-Earth orbit.

What Happened

The 400-foot-tall Super Heavy-Starship rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast at 8:49 a.m. EDT. Super Heavy’s 33 methane-burning Raptor engines produced about 16 million pounds of thrust, roughly twice that of NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket, and sent the vehicle southeast through the lower atmosphere.

During Super Heavy’s return maneuver, an engine apparently shut down early in the boost-back burn. The booster nevertheless made an apparently normal vertical splashdown a few miles offshore.

The Starship upper stage encountered a separate engine problem. One of its six Raptors shut down early as it climbed toward an initially suborbital trajectory. After reviewing telemetry and determining that the spacecraft was otherwise healthy, the flight control team cleared it for another firing. A single Raptor then completed the climb into a 180-mile-high orbit.

Eight and a half minutes after that orbit-insertion burn, a dispenser in Starship’s nose began releasing the 26 Starlink V3 satellites. Each third-generation satellite has 10 times the capacity of the previous generation.

With the satellites deployed, SpaceX controllers brought Starship back well ahead of schedule. Near the ocean, three Raptors reignited before the spacecraft turned upright and made a controlled, tail-first Pacific splashdown north of Hawaii at 11:57 a.m. EDT, about three hours after launch. The vehicle then tipped onto its side and exploded when residual propellants ignited.

Why It Matters

The mission marked Starship’s first orbital flight and its first deployment of operational satellites: 26 Starlink V3 spacecraft, each with 10 times the capacity of the previous generation.

The engine shutdowns showed that the flight did not proceed entirely as planned. Even so, the upper stage completed its orbital climb with a later firing, while the booster carried out its offshore splashdown despite the apparent engine loss during its return maneuver.

Background

The Super Heavy booster returned to an offshore splashdown, while the Starship upper stage is designed to be captured back at the launch pad after a trip to space. That upper-stage recovery milestone has not yet been attempted.

SpaceX currently has two Super Heavy-Starship launch pads at its Starbase facility in Texas. Three more are under construction in Florida: one at pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center and two at the neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Whats Next

SpaceX plans to conduct its first Florida launch late this year or early next year.