Starship Reaches Orbit and Delivers First V3 Starlinks

Starship Flight 14 achieved the vehicle's first orbit, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and splashed down early after an engine issue during ascent.

Starship reached orbit for the first time on Flight 14, lifting off from Starbase, Texas, at 8:49 a.m. EDT on September 28 on the 14th test flight of the world's most powerful rocket. All previous flights were deliberately flown on suborbital trajectories so the upper stage would come back before completing a lap of Earth.

One of Starship's six Raptors shut down prematurely during the ascent burn, and the five remaining engines burned longer to compensate, briefly leaving mission managers deciding whether to proceed. SpaceX commentator Dan Huot initially reported on the webcast that the orbit insertion burn would be aborted, but officials confirmed the failed engine was not one of the steerable center engines needed for orbit insertion and de-orbit. The insertion burn ignited a single Raptor 3 engine for 19 seconds, adding roughly 204 mph and placing Ship 41 in a stable orbit at about 171 miles (276 km), according to Ars Technica.

In orbit, Starship deployed 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites through its Pez-style payload deployer, each ejected overboard with pulleys and cables as the vehicle passed over South Africa. The roughly 2-ton satellites are too large for Falcon 9's fairing, and each adds 1 Tbps of capacity — ten times the older satellites, according to SpaceX. Three of the satellites carry cameras to inspect Starship's heat-shield tiles, per space.com's live coverage, and SpaceX said contact was established with all 26.

The flight was originally planned to last nearly ten hours across six orbits before a deorbit targeting a splashdown off Chile. Instead, out of what SpaceX called an abundance of caution over the ascent engine issue, flight controllers shortened the mission, and Starship splashed down in the northern Pacific north of Hawaii at 11:57 a.m. EDT — a little over three hours after liftoff, three times longer than prior flights. The heat shield held up against temperatures of up to 2,600°F, and the vehicle tipped over and broke apart on ocean impact, unlike July's intact splashdown, per Ars Technica.

Reaching orbit is the milestone that turns Starship into a working satellite launcher, and the V3 constellation depends entirely on it — SpaceX has already phased out Starlink launches on Falcon 9 from Florida, though Falcon 9 polar Starlink flights continue from Vandenberg, according to Ars Technica. Starship is also NASA's contracted human landing system for Artemis missions to the moon, and NPR reports NASA is planning to test docking Orion with Starship during Artemis III, now slated for late next year. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman publicly praised the launch, saying NASA is excited for Starship missions to become routine, per Houston Public Media.

Quilty Space research director Caleb Henry said on a Spaceflight Now broadcast that the V3 satellites had sat finished in a Texas warehouse well ahead of the launch vehicle, and he expects more already-built V3s on most of SpaceX's next series of Starship flights. SpaceX expects the 26 new satellites to begin serving customers within a few weeks, but Henry noted a meaningful number of V3s must launch before they define the user experience. Future Starships could carry up to 60 V3s per flight, and SpaceX plans higher-inclination orbits as new pads in Florida and Louisiana come online, according to Ars Technica.