SpaceX reaches orbit with Starship for first time, deploys Starlink V3
Starship reached orbit for the first time on its 14th flight, deploying the first operational Starlink V3 satellites.
updates
- 2026-09-29Reuters reports the in-flight engine failure could complicate NASA's Artemis lunar-lander timeline, since Starship's lander variant depends on the same engine system.
what happened
SpaceX launched Starship's 14th test flight from Starbase, Texas, at 8:48 a.m. ET on Sept. 28; one of the ship's six engines shut down during ascent, and SpaceX briefly reconsidered the orbital attempt before deciding to proceed, reaching orbit about 25 minutes after liftoff for the first time in 14 flights, per Payload and UPI. Starship then deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites over about 30 minutes, the first V3 satellites released to join the operational constellation rather than being discarded on reentry, and SpaceX confirmed contact with all of them, per Payload. SpaceX cut the flight short of its planned six orbits: mission managers brought Starship down once the satellites were on their way rather than continuing to the originally planned splashdown off Chile, and the ship splashed down in the Pacific north of Hawaii at 11:57 a.m. ET, about three hours after liftoff, per CBS News. On impact the ship tipped over, fell onto its side and exploded as residual propellants ignited, which CBS described as a relatively normal occurrence for ocean landings. The Super Heavy booster separately splashed down a few miles off the Texas coast after a second engine shut down prematurely during its boost-back burn, per CBS News.
why it matters
Reaching orbit is the milestone Starship needed to clear before it can take over deployment of Starlink V3, which SpaceX says carries roughly 10 times the downlink capacity of the V2 satellites it currently launches on Falcon 9; future Starship flights are expected to carry up to 60 V3 satellites at a time, versus 26 on this flight. It is also the vehicle NASA's Artemis program depends on for its human lunar lander, so a clean path to orbit, even with an in-flight engine loss, is the clearest signal yet that Starship is nearing operational status rather than remaining a test article. For competing constellation operators and launch customers, it marks the point where SpaceX's next big capacity jump becomes a demonstrated capability rather than a roadmap promise. Reuters reports the same engine system that failed in flight is the one Starship's lunar lander variant would use to ferry astronauts to and from the Moon's surface for Artemis III, an Earth-orbit rehearsal mission targeted as soon as next summer ahead of NASA's 2028 crewed-landing goal; aerospace engineer Dean Sladen of Accu Components told Reuters that any engine fix which holds up the next flights, including the planned tower-catch attempt, eats into that already tight schedule.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- SpaceX
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- major
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-28
- Published
- 2026-09-28 14:50 UTC