The world's largest rocket finally touched the edge of space

Space · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: SpaceX just achieved a massive milestone: the Starship megarocket reached orbit for the first time. While the flight was cut short by a technical hiccup, it proved the vehicle can survive the journey to space and deploy functional payloads, moving the needle closer to a reusable future.

On September 28, SpaceX launched its 14th fully integrated test flight of Starship from the Starbase facility in South Texas. This mission marked the first time the 124-meter-tall vehicle successfully propelled itself into orbit, reaching an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers. During the flight, it circled the Earth twice and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites—the first operational payloads ever carried by the craft. This success is a critical step for NASA's Artemis III mission, as it demonstrates at a low fidelity that Starship can reach orbit, a prerequisite for future lunar landings. The mission also provided full-color video of the deployment process in daylight. This achievement is vital for the company's goal of building a constellation of 100,000 spacecraft. Furthermore, the ship's heat shield was monitored by three of the satellites to ensure it remained intact.

However, the mission was not the 10-hour endurance flight originally planned. About 90 minutes into the journey, one of the Ship's six engines shut down early. SpaceX engineers faced a high-stakes decision: reignite the engine to reach orbit or bring the vehicle home immediately. They chose to push forward, successfully circularizing the trajectory about 25 minutes after liftoff. Despite this success, the flight was terminated after just over 3 hours to err on the side of caution, as SpaceX continues to monitor failures in the V3 Raptor engines during ascent. The booster stage, known as Booster 21, utilized 33 Raptor 3 engines to power the ascent. After separation, it performed a controlled return and landed in the Gulf of Mexico. This specific flight was the third-generation version of the vehicle.

The ultimate goal is total reusability. SpaceX aims to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Ship upper stage using SpaceX intends to use 'chopstick' arms on the launch tower to catch both stages. They have already successfully performed these catches with the Super Heavy booster on three previous tests. The company hopes this strategy will allow for a launch cadence of 10,000 flights annually by 2030.

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