SpaceX hit another milestone by launching Starship on its first orbital test.
**9:11 AM ET: We are go for orbit!
Starship performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the first time pic.twitter.com/LodrSTnEnl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Unfortunately, Starship lost an engine. I heard that SpaceX would cancel the orbit because the team wants all 33 engines to relight during the boost-back burn, “which is the first burn the vehicle completes after separating from Starship.”
But I just heard that the team hasn’t given up on orbit just yet.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/40D8bXSkr2
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Starship and the Super Heavy booster survived the Max Q: “That’s an aerospace term that refers to the point during flight at which a vehicle experiences peak stress — when it is traveling very fast while the atmosphere is still quite thick, putting the highest strain on the spacecraft.”
As Leslie wrote over the weekend, Starship will circle the Earth six times at an altitude of 171 miles.
SpaceX cut the orbit time from 10 hour to around three hours.
Starship will also deploy 26 Version 3 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX won’t attempt to land Starship back at the tower after two test flights exploded in 2025. Debris poured over Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.
Instead, SpaceX will test a controlled landing off the coast of Chile.
SpaceX has started planning a $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana where it will launch Starship many times a year.
The launches should start in 2029.
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