Starship

Where it stands

Flight 14 lifted off from Starbase at 12:48 UTC on 28 September 2026 and became the first orbital Starship flight: it deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites, made contact with each of them, flew Starship's first deorbit burn and splashed down on target in the northern Pacific. One booster engine and one ship Raptor Vacuum shut down early.

The mission

SpaceX flew Starship's 14th flight test on 28 September 2026 from Pad 2 at Starbase, its first attempt to reach orbit. One of the booster's 33 Raptors shut down on the climb; the booster relit 31 of 33 engines for its boostback, which was designed to burn through the remaining liquid oxygen to test performance limits, and 11 of 13 for its landing burn before splashing down in the Gulf, where its flight termination system was fired as a demonstration. One of the ship's Raptor Vacuum engines shut down early, the other five burned longer to reach the planned path, and a single sea-level Raptor then put Starship into orbit around Earth for the first time. After all 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed, SpaceX shortened the time on orbit out of caution, flew the first deorbit burn and landed the ship on target in the northern Pacific at one of two pre-coordinated zones. Flight 13 on 24 July 2026 had deployed the first 20 V3 satellites on a suborbital path.

Latest reporting

• 28 Sept 2026SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time
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