TAXAS: SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket reached orbit for the first time on Monday, even though one of its engines stopped working unexpectedly during the flight. It also released its first group of new Starlink satellites. The mission ended early, with the rocket making a planned but fiery landing in the Pacific Ocean.
The mission was meant to last 10 hours but was shortened to three hours because of the engine problem. The rocket launched from Texas. It was Starship’s 14th flight since 2023. SpaceX plans to start using the rocket regularly later this year.
SpaceX shares, which had risen nearly 9% above their IPO price, fell about 1% on Monday. Much of the company’s value and investor confidence depends on Starship’s success. The company was valued at $2 trillion at Friday’s close. Starship is designed to be the world’s first fully reusable spacecraft.
The uncrewed, 40-story-tall rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase site near Brownsville, Texas. It consists of a Super Heavy booster with the Starship spacecraft on top.
The Super Heavy booster carried Starship into space, then returned to the Gulf of Mexico and made a controlled splashdown. The booster had made hard landings on its two previous flights. SpaceX said some of its engines stopped working during the descent.
After reaching space, one of Starship’s three main engines shut down early. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said on the company’s live broadcast that the rocket would not be able to reach orbit.
“The team has decided not to try to reach orbit,” Huot said.
A few minutes later, Huot changed the update after engineers confirmed the rocket could still try an engine firing to reach orbit. Starship successfully did so minutes later.
Starship’s planned descent into the Pacific ended with its thrusters turning the rocket upright so it hit the water nose-first.
Fire covered the bottom of the rocket as it touched the ocean, before it tipped onto its side and a large fireball followed. SpaceX had not planned to recover the spacecraft from the sea.
Once in orbit, Starship released 26 new Starlink satellites one at a time at an altitude of about 269 kilometres (161 miles).
“All 26 Starlink V3 working satellites were released and are operating normally,” Musk wrote on X.
Starship was built to launch Starlink satellites more often and carry future NASA missions to the moon. Reaching orbit is a key goal for any new rocket designed to carry cargo into space. Starship’s success came after years of delays. Musk once predicted it would reach orbit in 2022 and release satellites in 2023.
All 13 of Starship’s earlier test flights since 2023 stayed below orbit, despite nearly 10 years of development that has cost SpaceX more than $15 billion. Musk has said he hopes to fly Starship hundreds or thousands of times each year—a pace never before seen in the space industry.
“Starship is 2 to 3 years away from flying every hour,” Musk wrote on X on Sunday.
Monday’s flight was still a test, even though Starship carried its first payload into orbit. Experts estimate that Monday’s launch of SpaceX’s new V3 Starlink satellites could bring hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue to Starlink by adding more capacity for customers. This shows how important Starship is to the company’s main source of income.
SpaceX says the V3 Starlink satellites released on Monday can carry 10 times more data than the older V2 mini satellites. SpaceX has launched 20 or 30 of the older satellites at a time using its Falcon 9 rockets. Musk wants to launch 60 V3 satellites at a time once Starship is used regularly.
Starship reached orbit three months after SpaceX went public in a record-breaking IPO in June. The IPO made it the sixth-most valuable US company and made Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, the world’s first trillionaire.
Starship is also expected to play a major part in NASA’s Artemis program. The program aims to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 and build a lasting human presence there, as a step toward future human missions to Mars.
Reported By: Our Correspondent I Taxas
