SpaceX Starship achieves orbital velocity and deploys new Starlink satellites
During its 14th test flight on Monday, SpaceX's Starship rocket successfully reached low-Earth orbit. The mission, launched from South Texas, marked a shift from previous suborbital trajectories to a full orbital flight, allowing the company to deploy its latest generation of broadband satellites.
According to Ars Technica, this flight utilized increased power from the vehicle's Raptor engines to reach orbital velocity. In previous missions, SpaceX intentionally limited the rocket's performance to maintain a suborbital path that would re-enter the atmosphere before completing a full orbit around the planet.
The mission also served as a delivery vehicle for 26 next-generation Starlink satellites. These newer, larger satellites are too big for the Falcon 9 rocket to carry. The deployment process involved a payload deployer that used a system of cables and pulleys to release the flat-packed satellites one by one.
Source: SpaceX's Starship goes orbital, deploying first next-gen Starlinks
