SpaceX’s Starship reaches orbit on its 14th flight after engine scare; company says: The team has made the call not to… |
SpaceX’s Starship has finally reached orbit. The world’s largest and most powerful rocket lifted off from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas at 7:48am local time on Monday (6:18pm IST). On its 14th test flight, Starship circled the Earth for the first time instead of briefly touching space and falling back.It nearly didn’t happen. Shortly after the upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster, one of Starship’s engines shut down too early. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot told viewers on the live stream that the team had decided not to commit to orbit. Minutes later, engineers confirmed the ship could still perform the burn it needed. It did, and Mission Control announced “Starship is orbital” to loud cheers at the launch site.
Starlink V3 satellites become Starship’s first real payload
Once in orbit at an altitude of about 275km, Starship released 26 Starlink V3 satellites one at a time. Musk later posted on X that all 26 were deployed and operating normally.These satellites can each handle about 10 times more data than the V2 Mini units SpaceX currently launches on Falcon 9. The company says a single full Starship launch of V3 satellites adds as much network capacity as 20 Falcon 9 flights. The new satellites should start serving Starlink customers within weeks.The flight did not run its full course, though. SpaceX had planned six laps around the planet over nearly 10 hours, ending with a splashdown near Chile. About 90 minutes in, the company said it would deorbit the ship after roughly three hours. It gave no reason for the change. Starship came down north of Hawaii, flipped upright just before hitting the water, then tipped over and burst into flames. SpaceX had never planned to recover it.The booster dropped into the Gulf of Mexico for an engine-controlled splashdown, though SpaceX said some of its engines cut out on the way down. The booster had made hard landings on the two previous flights.
Reaching orbit keeps Starship on track for NASA’s Artemis moon missions
Musk once expected Starship to reach orbit by 2022. All 13 earlier flights were suborbital, and the programme has cost SpaceX more than $15 billion (roughly Rs 1.3 lakh crore). NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated the company on the result.The timing matters for NASA. Artemis III, planned for as early as next summer, will test Starship docking with an Orion capsule in Earth orbit. Artemis IV, due no sooner than 2028, will land astronauts on the Moon using either Starship or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon, depending on which is ready first.Next, SpaceX wants to catch a returning Starship with the launch tower’s mechanical arms. Musk rates the chances as even or slightly better. If the catch works, the same ship could fly again by the end of the year or early next year.SpaceX shares slipped about 1% on Monday after the early return was announced. Still, the flight survived an engine failure, delivered a working payload and came down where it was meant to. For a rocket whose test flights exploded over the Bahamas and spun out of control last year, that counts as solid progress.
