TLDR
- Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time on its 14th test flight, despite losing one of six Raptor engines during ascent.
- The ship deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites, marking the rocket’s first delivery of an operational payload.
- The Super Heavy booster separated and splashed down safely in the Gulf of America.
- SPCX stock dipped slightly after the launch before paring losses in early trading.
- The mission follows years of delays, with the Starship program costing SpaceX more than $15 billion so far.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket reached orbit for the first time on Monday. SPCX stock slipped around 1% in early trading before erasing most of that loss.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
The uncrewed rocket lifted off at 7:46 a.m. CT from Starbase near Brownsville, Texas. It was the 14th test flight for the vehicle.
Ship 41 lost one of its six Raptor engines during ascent. SpaceX said the vehicle continued on a “passively safe suborbital trajectory” while engineers reviewed its systems.
Starship performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the first time pic.twitter.com/LodrSTnEnl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
At 9:11 a.m. ET, SpaceX gave the call: “Go for orbit!” The ship then fired a single Raptor engine for its orbital insertion burn.
SpaceX confirmed the burn placed Starship in orbit around Earth for the first time. The company had targeted an altitude of about 275 kilometers.
A Milestone Years in the Making
Every previous Starship flight fell short of orbit. Past attempts ended in splashdowns or, in some cases, the loss of the vehicle entirely.
Elon Musk once predicted Starship would reach orbit back in 2022. That timeline slipped repeatedly, and the program has now cost SpaceX more than $15 billion.
The Super Heavy booster, numbered 21, separated from Starship during the flight. It splashed down in the Gulf of America shortly after.
Starship was expected to complete six orbits of Earth over a roughly 10-hour flight. The plan called for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile.
Satellites Deployed for the First Time
Monday’s flight carried 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first time Starship has delivered an operational payload. SpaceX confirmed deployment on X at 9:54 a.m. ET.
“Payload deploy complete. All 26 @Starlink V3 satellites are in orbit,” the company posted. The satellites released in sequence through a door on the side of the ship.
V3 satellites are too large to fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Each one is built to carry more than 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity, well above the current V2 Mini satellites.
Starlink remains SpaceX’s largest business line. A working Starship is central to expanding that network and lowering the cost of each satellite launch.
Monday’s launch also arrived with SpaceX now trading as a public company. That puts the Starship program under a level of investor attention it didn’t face during earlier tests.
Shortly before liftoff, SpaceX posted that it is “building the infrastructure of the future, from supercomputers to Terafab to Gigasat to a new Starbase in Louisiana.”
The company’s AI compute business has also helped lift the stock recently, after SPCX dipped below $100 shortly following its IPO.
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