SpaceX's Starship Rocket Achieves Historic First Orbit After Overcoming Engine Glitch

The largest rocket ever developed by SpaceX has successfully achieved orbit for the first time, marking a major milestone for the private aerospace company. Mission control announced on a livestream on Monday that "Starship is orbital" following a launch from a base in Starbase, Texas, United States.

The uncrewed spacecraft faced an early challenge when one of its engines shut down prematurely. However, with all other systems functioning properly and the faulty engine no longer required, flight controllers decided to proceed with the mission after several tense minutes.

Founded by Elon Musk, the colossal rocket carried 26 advanced Starlink satellites to supplement the 11,000 older models already providing internet coverage. This marked Starship's 14th full-scale launch from Texas over a three-year period, with previous test flights having ventured no farther than the Indian Ocean.

During this mission, SpaceX aimed to circle the globe six times from an altitude of 275km (170 miles) over nearly 10 hours, concluding with a Pacific splashdown near Chile. The first-stage booster dropped into the Gulf of Mexico shortly after liftoff as part of the cautious testing phase.

If the orbital debut concludes successfully, future missions will attempt to catch the returning spacecraft using giant mechanical arms at the launch pad. Designed to be fully reusable to lower launch costs, the 124-metre (407-foot) rocket represents a crucial step toward future crewed missions to the moon and Mars.

NASA’s upcoming Artemis III mission will feature a complex triple-launch docking exercise involving an Orion capsule, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Moon lander, and Musk’s Starship. Subsequent moonshots like Artemis IV will utilize whichever lander is ready first to transport astronauts to the lunar surface.

While Musk initially designed Starship to transport settlers to Mars, the current focus remains on lunar missions and deploying satellites in bulk, which will eventually phase out the Falcon 9 rocket. Additional launch sites are also being developed at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and in Louisiana.