SpaceX Launches Starship to Perform First Orbital Test
Starship will circle the Earth six times at an altitude of 171 miles.
SpaceX hit another milestone by launching Starship on its first orbital test.
**9:11 AM ET: We are go for orbit!
Starship performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the first time pic.twitter.com/LodrSTnEnl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Unfortunately, Starship lost an engine. I heard that SpaceX would cancel the orbit because the team wants all 33 engines to relight during the boost-back burn, “which is the first burn the vehicle completes after separating from Starship.”
But I just heard that the team hasn’t given up on orbit just yet.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/40D8bXSkr2
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
Starship and the Super Heavy booster survived the Max Q: “That’s an aerospace term that refers to the point during flight at which a vehicle experiences peak stress — when it is traveling very fast while the atmosphere is still quite thick, putting the highest strain on the spacecraft.”
As Leslie wrote over the weekend, Starship will circle the Earth six times at an altitude of 171 miles.
SpaceX cut the orbit time from 10 hour to around three hours.
Starship will also deploy 26 Version 3 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX won’t attempt to land Starship back at the tower after two test flights exploded in 2025. Debris poured over Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.
Instead, SpaceX will test a controlled landing off the coast of Chile.
SpaceX has started planning a $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana where it will launch Starship many times a year.
The launches should start in 2029.
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Comments
On the live feed, what are all those things that look like Fireflies flying around? Kind of looks like sparks.
Ice coming off of the tanks.
Thanks, bill.
If on reentry, sparks were not a good thing as some exposed metal somewhere was being melted away. Not a lot though as the shielding is so much better now. The first Starships had major burn through be remained intact… although not the reuseable hope. Now, really improved. They did it…. reached low earth orbit and made it down fine. The size and scale are so impressive.
Orbit achieved, and all 26 satellites successfully deployed. Despite two unscheduled engine shutdowns.
I was thinking about this yesterday, came up with some blue-sky modifications…
Assume a Starship is planned to be reconfigured as an orbital habitat.
https://instapundit.com/825421/
Now, as part of the preparation, make a few relatively minor modifications:
1. Add a ring of hardpoints around the tail, designed to allow the attachment of external fuel tanks and pumping systems. A Starship space station will still have the Raptor engines installed, and we already know they can be restarted. With a replaceable fuel source, the StarStation is now mobile…
2. Add a second ring of hardpoints around the forward end, just behind the fins. Depending on the exact engineering, these hardpoints could be used for oxygen/atmosphere tanks, water tanks, self-contained experiment modules, solar panel mounts, supply cannisters…
3. Add a docking port to allow StarStation to host a variety of smaller ships – Dragon, Soyuz, X-37, ESA Avio…
As part of 2 & 3, add a cannister to the forward ring containing an inflatable habitat that can be used as a lifeboat in the event of disaster. In non-catastrophic failure mode, send out a spacewalker to move the lifeboat to the docking ring, everybody dives in, separates and moves off to wait for pickup.
Since the StarStation is not intended to re-enter atmosphere, the mods need not be as robust as usual. As long as they survive launch and orbital insertion, you’re good. Fuel tanks, modules, etc. can be ferried up by other Starships, Falcons or Falcon Heavies.
Just dreamin’…
He has to put one up there as a gas station. He should call it X-on.
Just don’t let the Russians run it.
There were or are plans to use a Starship as a habitat on the moon or I assume mars so making one the core of a space station is not a bad idea.
The Starship will terminate the mission early after about 2 3/4 orbits, around 3 hours into the mission, to do a soft touch down in the North Pacific cleared area.
You know, in conjunction with the space junk problem and hostile acts in space, Elon could do the funniest thing to redesign Starship….
Musk!!!
“I heard that SpaceX would cancel the orbit because the team wants all 33 engines to relight during the boost-back burn”
Unless they’re lucky enough that the dead engine is in the central-most position. Then the vehicle will Boost Back Better. We’ve proved it!
Heavy lost one on take off but perfect on return. Starship lost a vacuum Raptor and sailed into orbit. I’d paint the next Starship in XL-5 colors…..
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