SpaceX launches Starship on first orbital flight

SpaceX successfully launched its next-generation Starship rocket on Monday, marking its first orbital mission. The massive, reusable spacecraft is crucial to SpaceX's commercial spaceflight plans, with NASA planning to use a modified version as a lunar lander in the Artemis program. The Starship, launched from South Texas early Monday, was set to orbit Earth approximately six times before landing in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile.

As part of the mission, the spacecraft deployed 26 new Starlink V3 internet satellites. The first-stage Super Heavy booster, modified due to ice clogging issues from a previous test flight, splashed down in the Gulf of America shortly after launch. SpaceX stated that the mission's purpose was to transition from passive safe suborbital trajectories to orbit, enabling the development of a fully reusable Starship.

While SpaceX plans to catch Starship in its launch tower in the future, as it has done with Super Heavy, no such attempt was made during this mission.