SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time on September 28, 2026, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites, despite an engine shutdown during ascent that briefly put the orbital attempt in doubt.
The mission, Starship’s 14th flight, launched from the company’s Starbase facility in south Texas. SpaceX subsequently cut short the planned flight due to the engine issue, selecting an earlier return after completing the satellite deployments.
One of the upper stage’s engines shut down earlier than planned, prompting SpaceX’s mission webcast team to announce that the vehicle would not proceed into orbit. Engineers then determined that the attempt could continue, and Starship successfully fired an engine to enter orbit.
SpaceX had planned a flight lasting nearly 10 hours, with approximately six orbits before a Pacific Ocean splashdown west of Chile. Instead, Starship splashed down north of Hawaii just before noon Eastern time, about three hours after launch.
The orbital flight followed 13 missions deliberately flown on suborbital trajectories. For Flight 14, the plan called for Starship to begin on a similar path, then restart an engine in space to raise its trajectory into orbit after checks of the vehicle’s condition. SpaceX did not plan to recover either stage on this mission.
The Super Heavy booster separated from Starship and completed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The payload consisted entirely of SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, intended to expand its broadband network. SpaceX has designed each V3 satellite to provide about one terabit per second of downlink capacity.
Starship’s previous flight in July carried 20 V3 satellites, but released them on a suborbital trajectory. Those satellites burned up during reentry rather than remaining in orbit.
SpaceX is developing Starship as a fully reusable system to launch satellites and carry people and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars. A lunar lander version is also being developed for NASA’s Artemis program to transport astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.
Upcoming development goals include recovering and reusing Starship’s upper stage and demonstrating propellant transfer between spacecraft in orbit, a requirement for its planned lunar missions. NASA also plans an Artemis III demonstration in Earth orbit in 2027 to test rendezvous and docking with commercial landers ahead of crewed lunar landings targeted to begin in 2028.