SpaceX's Starship completed its first fully orbital flight, reaching low-Earth orbit for the first time. The milestone was marked by deploying next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit, validating the vehicle's capability as a practical orbital launch platform.
Background
Starship, SpaceX's fully reusable super-heavy-lift vehicle, had in prior test flights reached suborbital altitudes but had not yet completed a full orbital trajectory. Achieving orbital insertion is the key engineering threshold before the vehicle can be used for routine satellite deployment and eventual Mars missions.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Sep 29, 2026 at 05:26 AM
- Score
- 8.0 / 10