In a historic first, SpaceX successfully launched its massive Starship rocket into orbit early Monday at 8:48 a.m. ET (7:48 a.m. local time) from Starbase, Texas, marking a significant milestone for the company’s ambitious space program.
At roughly 8:15 a.m. local time, the Starship vehicle entered orbit while staff members of SpaceX gathered at the pad and celebrated the achievement. The FAA later confirmed that it had granted a license for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Flight 14 launch and its re-entry activities on September 26.
With the 14th test flight of Starship, Elon Musk’s aerospace and defense company also planned to deploy 26 of its new Starlink V3 satellites. After the Starship reached orbit, SpaceX began to quickly release the satellites around 8:25 a.m. local time.
A live video streamed on X displayed the launch of the test flight from Starbase, Texas. Moments after liftoff, the booster performed a gentle splashdown near Starbase’s shoreline, as the Starship vehicle kept ascending, losing one of its vacuum engines during a sub-orbital phase.
Read Also: Heirs clash over trusts when one controls wealth
The Starship system plays a vital role in SpaceX’s growth strategy, with the firm relying on the massive launch vehicle to expand its Starlink (Connectivity) service. At present, SpaceX maintains roughly 11,000 operational satellites in orbit, whereas rival Eutelsat OneWeb fields about 650.
During the August earnings briefing, Musk remarked, “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.” A single Starship launch is capable of transporting 60 of SpaceX’s new Starlink v3 satellites.
SpaceX engineered the Starship Super Heavy launch system and its booster for full reusability, aiming to move greater payloads to orbit at lower expense than any earlier vehicle. The firm is getting the Starship ready for a significant NASA test mission slated for next year and plans to employ it to return American astronauts to the lunar surface.
Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell indicated that SpaceX intends to employ Starship for “supercompute in space,” targeting the deployment of “AI compute satellites” in 2027. The latest v3 satellites feature solar panels that produce double the electricity of earlier models and are built to deliver stronger performance, sending data to Starlink users at a faster rate than previous versions.