SpaceX launched its Starship spacecraft from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas on Monday, marking the first time the vehicle has reached Earth's orbit. The uncrewed craft lifted off at 7:48 a.m. CT, powered by a Super Heavy booster generating 16 million pounds of thrust. The mission, designated Flight 14, is intended to demonstrate the vehicle’s orbital capabilities for NASA’s Artemis program and deploy 26 Starlink V3 internet satellites.
The flight followed 13 previous suborbital tests. During the ascent, one of the Starship upper stage’s six Raptor engines shut down early. After analyzing telemetry, SpaceX mission controllers determined the vehicle was healthy and used a second engine firing to complete the climb to orbit. The flight plan includes six laps around the Earth at an altitude of approximately 170 to 180 miles before a scheduled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile.
The Super Heavy booster, which separated from Starship two-and-a-half minutes after launch, performed a simulated landing splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. While the booster is designed to be caught by mechanical arms on the launch tower—a feat SpaceX has achieved four times—the company opted for an ocean landing for this mission to test hardware and software upgrades. The total mission duration is expected to be nine hours and 50 minutes.
The scale of the project involves billions of dollars in infrastructure and hundreds of launches. In June, SpaceX filings related to its initial public offering (IPO) stated that Starship’s development is central to its growth strategy, noting that delays in launch cadence or reusability would limit the company's execution. SpaceX recently announced a $100 billion investment for a new facility in Louisiana, with plans to begin launches from that site in 2029. Currently, the company is also constructing three additional pads in Florida to support a ramped-up schedule.
For the general public, the mission's success impacts the expansion of the Starlink satellite constellation. The Starlink V3 satellites deployed Monday each possess 10 times the capacity of previous versions. As SpaceX transitions Starship into regular service, the company plans to move satellite launches from Florida to Starship-exclusive operations. Following the orbital phase, engineers will monitor the craft's heat shield during re-entry—a critical step for achieving the full reusability required to lower the per-launch cost of space access. SpaceX expects the first Florida launch of Starship to take place late this year or early next year.