SpaceX's Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, had its 14th flight on Monday, and it hit a milestone - it was its first flight into orbit.
It launched from Starbase, Texas, with spectacular visuals.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/40D8bXSkr2
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Then they had the booster separation. Despite having an engine shutdown early during the boost-back burn, the Super Heavy had a successful splashdown in the Gulf of America.
Starship’s Raptor engines ignite during hot-staging separation. Super Heavy boosted back towards its splashdown site in the Gulf of America pic.twitter.com/0DcBz1wayt
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of America! pic.twitter.com/pEIjC2Aae1
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Meanwhile, Starship continued. One of the engines failed, and that threw into question whether or not they would continue with the goal of reaching orbit. But flight controllers gave it a "go," and they continued with the mission after assessing the telemetry.
Starship performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the first time pic.twitter.com/LodrSTnEnl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
The Starship upper stage deployed 26 Starlink internet satellites
Starship has begun deploying its payload of 26 @Starlink V3 satellites. This deployment sequence will take ~30 minutes pic.twitter.com/ycIdAx5Lbe
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
The @Starlink team has made contact with all 26 satellites https://t.co/qiAubuhytS
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Then they prepared to come back out of orbit, bringing the flight back earlier than planned.
Starship is preparing for its deorbit burn pic.twitter.com/431iz2S60G
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
The mission was initially expected to last six orbits, leading to a splashdown off the coast of Chile around 6:40 p.m. But with the Starlink satellites safely on their way, mission managers opted to bring the ship down early with a Pacific Ocean splashdown north of Hawaii.
Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the first orbital flight of Starship! pic.twitter.com/urjmiwnvNl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
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