SpaceX conducted the 14th flight test of its Starship rocket on September 28, achieving a long-sought milestone: the first successful orbital flight of the fully reusable rocket system. The mission began with liftoff from Starbase, Texas, with the Super Heavy booster lifting the Starship upper stage toward space before returning for a controlled splashdown.
From launch to satellite deployment
The Super Heavy booster, powered by 33 Raptor 3 engines, carried Starship through the lower atmosphere. One engine shut down during ascent, but the remaining engines compensated. After a hot-staging maneuver, the upper stage separated and ignited six engines to continue toward orbit.
Super Heavy then flipped and reignited 31 engines for a boostback burn designed to return toward the launch area. The booster later descended to a splashdown in the Gulf of America, where its flight termination system was activated on landing as a safety demonstration.
During Starship's climb to orbit, one vacuum-optimized Raptor engine failed, but the vehicle compensated by burning its remaining five engines longer. The mission control team verified that the Raptors needed for later maneuvers were healthy and authorized orbital operations. Starship then reignited one engine for an orbit insertion burn, entering Earth orbit for the first time.
After a brief coast phase, Starship deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. Contact was established with each satellite via laser links, ground stations, and user terminals. These satellites will raise their orbits and undergo testing before joining SpaceX's broadband constellation. Due to the earlier engine anomaly, mission controllers shortened the orbital phase and proceeded with deorbit.
Controlled return and splashdown
Starship performed its first deorbit burn using one sea-level Raptor engine, leaving orbit and reentering the atmosphere. The vehicle withstood reentry heating and descended to the northern Pacific Ocean, where it reignited three engines for landing, transitioned to fewer engines during final descent, and splashed down on target. This marked the first successful soft landing of an orbital Starship.
This flight matters because it demonstrates Starship's ability to operate in orbital space, deploy payloads, and return intact. Previous test flights remained suborbital. Achieving orbit and controlled reentry is essential for SpaceX's plans to use Starship for satellite deployment, lunar landings under NASA's Artemis program, and eventually human missions to Mars. The successful satellite deployment also validates Starship as a platform for launching the next generation of Starlink satellites, which are too large for Falcon 9 rockets.