SpaceX sent its massive Starship into orbit for the first time Monday, targeting six complete circuits of Earth in a landmark test of the spacecraft’s readiness for NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
The mission came close to falling short of that long-awaited milestone when one engine shut down prematurely. However, the remaining engines continued performing well, and because the failed engine was no longer essential, flight controllers decided after several tense minutes to continue with the planned flight.
“Starship is orbital,” Mission Control declared, prompting cheers.
The showcase rocket, developed by SpaceX founder Elon Musk and billed as the largest and most powerful ever built, carried 26 of the company’s newest Starlink satellites. The spacecraft released them one at a time to join the roughly 11,000 older satellites already delivering internet service worldwide. Each deployment was met with more applause from SpaceX supporters watching at the Starbase launch site in Texas.
The launch marked Starship’s 14th full-scale flight from the southern tip of Texas over three years. Previous tests traveled no farther than the Indian Ocean, roughly halfway around the planet, with several ending in fiery crashes after briefly reaching space.
For this mission, SpaceX aimed to send Starship around Earth from an altitude of 170 miles (275 kilometers) six times during a flight lasting nearly 10 hours. The spacecraft was expected to finish with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Chile.
The rocket’s first-stage booster was not scheduled to return to the Starbase launch complex. Instead, it was designed to fall into the Gulf of Mexico within minutes of the morning liftoff.
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SpaceX wants to confirm that Starship can operate reliably before attempting to bring it back to Starbase. If the spacecraft were to break apart over land and scatter debris over populated areas, Musk said at a business summit earlier this month, “our popularity would diminish very rapidly.” He added: “That’s why we’re being extremely cautious here.”
If the orbital test succeeds, the next Starship could attempt a return to the launch pad, where enormous mechanical arms would try to catch the hovering spacecraft. Musk has said the maneuver has even or slightly better odds of success. If it works, SpaceX plans to fly the spacecraft again by the end of the year or early next year.
The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket was designed to be fully reusable, a feature SpaceX says is crucial to reducing launch costs. The company recovered the previous Starship from the Indian Ocean in July. Engineers then used hands-on inspections of that vehicle to modify the heat shield on the newly launched spacecraft. The recovered Starship is now being towed back to Starbase.
SpaceX is moving aggressively to certify Starship for orbital missions, an important step in the company’s plans for travel to the moon and Mars.
NASA’s Artemis III mission could launch as soon as next summer and involves a series of three launches followed by an orbital docking operation around Earth. The mission plan calls for an Orion capsule carrying astronauts to link up with competing lunar landers. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon would launch first, followed by Orion, which would approach for a connection, and then Musk’s Starship, which would dock with Orion after Blue Moon separates.
The subsequent mission, Artemis IV, is scheduled for no earlier than 2028 and could place astronauts on the moon using either Blue Moon or Starship, depending on which lander is ready first. Later lunar missions are expected to alternate between the landers developed by the two billionaires.
Musk initially designed Starship with Mars in mind, envisioning fleets of the spacecraft carrying the first settlers to the Red Planet. For now, however, SpaceX is prioritizing lunar missions and plans to use Starship to deploy large numbers of satellites, eventually phasing out the company’s more fragile Falcon 9 rocket over the next several years. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while a third is planned for Louisiana.