SpaceX's Starship has reached orbit for the first time, a milestone for the company's giant rocket system that now puts it in a position to deliver payloads. The flight, designated Flight 14, launched Ship 41 and Booster 21 from Starbase Pad 2 in Texas, and the vehicle placed 26 Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, which were deployed and activated.
The launch was delayed by 31 minutes to improve lighting conditions for the splashdown. During the flight, Booster 21 lost one of its center engines but still carried out its boost-back burn and landing sequence, coming down on target in the Gulf before it was destroyed. The ship also lost one of its vacuum engines during ascent but continued on to orbit.
The orbital insertion burn took place at about 25 minutes into the flight, placing the ship in an orbit of roughly 262 by 277 kilometers at an inclination of 32 degrees. The ship then reentered earlier than planned, skipping most of the roughly eight-hour coast phase that had been scheduled, which means less data was gathered during that stage than the team intended. The ship splashed down about three hours and eight minutes after liftoff, north of Hawaii.
The flight comes after Flights 12 and 13, which both saw booster losses, although the ship portions of those missions were largely successful. Looking ahead, Booster 22 is expected to be the first Block 3 booster caught on Flight 15, and Ship 40 is returning to port, with arrival expected around October 8.
We rewrote this story on 4 November 2026 after an editorial review.
Credit. Based on reporting by Ryan Weber for NASASpaceflight. Is this your work? Write to us.
245
