SpaceX Starship Megarocket Achieves First-Ever Orbit on 14th Test Flight from Texas

Key facts

• SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy megarocket, the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, reached orbit for the first time on its 14th test flight, launched from the Starbase site in South Texas on September 28, 2026.
• Starship lifted off at 8:48 a.m. EDT (1248 GMT) and stands 407 feet (124 meters) tall, capable of carrying more than 110 tons (100 metric tons) to Earth orbit.
• During liftoff, one of the six engines on Starship's Ship upper stage went out, but flight controllers decided to press ahead and Ship entered low Earth orbit about 25-30 minutes after launch.
• Ship successfully deployed 26 next-generation Starlink V3 broadband satellites starting about 34 minutes after liftoff, the first members of a planned megaconstellation of about 100,000 satellites.
• The Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff, while Ship splashed down intact in the northern Pacific Ocean three hours and eight minutes after launch, then toppled over and exploded.
• NASA selected Starship as the first crewed lander for its Artemis program, with the Ship upper stage planned to fly on the crewed Artemis III mission in mid-2027 and land astronauts near the moon's south pole with Artemis IV a year later.
• SpaceX has yet to attempt a tower catch of Ship, has not demonstrated off-Earth refueling, and must install life-support systems ahead of crewed missions.