SpaceX’s Starship Reaches Orbit and Deploys 26 Starlink Satellites
Flight 14 marked Starship’s first successful orbital mission, while the vehicle returned early for a splashdown in the northern Pacific.
SpaceX’s Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time on Sept. 28 and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, marking a key step toward using the vehicle to expand the company’s satellite network.
The Flight 14 mission lifted off from Starbase, Texas, at about 8:48 a.m. ET (12:48 p.m. UTC). Starship reached orbit roughly 30 minutes later and released the full satellite batch. Three of the satellites carried cameras intended to photograph the spacecraft’s heat shield and support improvements for future atmospheric reentry.
The mission ended earlier than planned. Starship performed its deorbit maneuver at about 11:04 a.m. ET (3:04 p.m. UTC) and splashed down in the northern Pacific at about 11:58 a.m. ET (3:58 p.m. UTC). The Super Heavy booster completed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after launch.
The mission had originally been planned to last about 10 hours, with Starship landing in the Pacific Ocean near Chile. Starship’s previous flight deployed Starlink V3 satellites on a suborbital path, making Flight 14 the first mission to place the newer satellites into orbit.
