SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket and sent it into Earth’s orbit Monday morning, a milestone the spacecraft has never reached in 13 previous test flights.
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Liftoff from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas occurred shortly before 9 a.m. ET and was streamed live online.
About 20 minutes later, the rocket initiated a burn that pushed it into Earth orbit for the first time in SpaceX history.
The initial plan was for Starship to circle Earth six times, then splash down in the Pacific off the coast of Chile about ten hours after liftoff. However, about 90 minutes into the test flight, SpaceX officials decided to cut the mission short, estimating the rocket would splash down four hours after launch, rather than the expected 10.
The flight met its planned objectives, however. The rocket deployed 26 of SpaceX’s new Starlink V3 satellites more than 30 minutes after launch.
The satellites are the first in a new megaconstellation that Elon Musk says could eventually include 100,000 spacecraft.
A rocket built to be reused
Starship has flown 13 test missions since its April 2023 debut, but every one has been suborbital. Monday’s flight changed that.
Starship is the biggest rocket ever built, standing 407 feet tall when fully stacked. Both stages are designed to be fully reusable, something SpaceX calls the “holy grail of rocketry.”
That reusability is central to SpaceX’s plans for future missions to the Moon and Mars. But Starship is still in its flight-test phase, with several major tests remaining before it can carry crews.
One of those tests involves using the launch tower to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship’s upper stage. SpaceX has already caught Super Heavy during previous flights, but has never attempted the same maneuver with the ship itself.
Space.com reports that a test is likely coming.
SpaceX also needs to test “tanker” ships that can refuel Starship in space and demonstrate propellant transfers between spacecraft. Starship will also need a life-support system before crewed tests can begin.
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