SpaceX successfully launched its powerful Starship from South Texas into Earth's orbit on Monday, a first for Starship. The spacecraft then landed in the north Pacific Ocean after about three hours in flight with a fiery landing.
Though the landing was not as soft as its most recent mission, the spacecraft appeared to be at least partially intact.
The flight is a significant step for commercial space exploration. Starship is a very powerful rocket that SpaceX aims to make fully reusable. A version of Starship will also be used in future Artemis missions.
On Monday, Starship 14 took off from Spaceport at 7:48 a.m. before entering the Earth's orbit roughly 30 minutes later. It's not the first time SpaceX, whichrecently launched the largest IPO in history, has put a spacecraft in orbit, but it is the first time Starship has entered orbit — and the first time a spacecraft has launched into orbit from Texas.
A couple engines on the Super Heavy booter did not function properly, though it was able to successfully enter Earth's orbit. Though the booster did splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump Administration has renamed the Gulf of America, SpaceX triggered the booster's flight termination system, a safety mechanism that destroys the booster, as a demonstration.
"Gorgeous launch, getting Ship to orbit and managing every step in a safe, responsible, and especially inspirational way," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a social media post. "[NASA], along with the rest of the interested public, is excited to help where we can and for Starship missions to become routine!"
The mission was ultimately quite a bit shorter than had previously been planned. SpaceX had initially planned for Starship to make about six Earth orbits, lasting for ten hours before landing off the coast of Chile.
After just over three hours of flight, Starship landed in the northern Pacific Ocean around 11 a.m. CDT. Just as the spacecraft splashed down, there appeared to be an fiery landing. SpaceX will work to recover the Starship spacecraft over the coming days.
Starship is SpaceX’s fully reusable super heavy-lift space vehicle, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built. This fourteenth mission was the first to fully deploy operational Starlink satellites into space, after the previous July mission demonstrated the ability to do so.
NASA has contracted SpaceX to develop a lunar landing system to bring astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time in more than 50 years. NASA is spending more than $4 billion for SpaceX’s lander, according to a report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General, despite SpaceX facing repeated delays.
SpaceX intends to use a variation of Starship, designed to carry a crew, to land on the moon and develop the U.S.’s Moon Base.
NASA had initially planned to land humans on the moon with the Artemis III mission. Following delays from both SpaceX and the other commercial program contracted with NASA, Blue Origin, the Artemis III mission was rekindled to involve testing one or both SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar landers in low Earth orbit.
Artemis IV is expected to utilize one of those landers, depending on which one is most capable in time for the mission, expected in early 2028.
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