SpaceX launched Starship into Earth orbit for the first time

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its Starship spacecraft into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch took place from Starbase in Texas at 07:49 am local time (13:49 London time).

This is Starship's 14th test flight. All previous ones were suborbital - that is, the ship reached space, but did not gain enough speed or did not stay there long enough to enter a stable orbit.

In the first minutes after the launch, everything went according to plan. Starship's upper stage separated from the Super Heavy booster, which soon splashed down successfully in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, 18 minutes after launch, one of the engines unexpectedly shut down, which could have forced the team to abandon the attempt to put the ship into orbit.

But just a few minutes later, SpaceX reported that experts had reassessed the situation and given the go-ahead to continue the flight.

Less than half an hour after launch from the spaceport in Mexico, Starship entered Earth orbit for the first time in history.

It then successfully launched all 26 Starlink V3 satellites into space.

It was assumed that in ten hours of flight, Starship should make about six orbits around the Earth and put satellites into orbit, and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean, west of the coast of Chile.

What you need to know about Starship

Starship is a spacecraft and launch vehicle developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Musk expects Starship to revolutionize spaceflight by making the system completely reusable, something he has previously called the “holy grail” of space technology.

SpaceX calls Starship "the most powerful launch vehicle ever built." In the future, it should deliver people and cargo “to low-Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”

The system consists of two main parts - the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster rocket. The total height of the structure is 124 meters, diameter - 9 meters.

Starship's payload capacity—that is, the maximum mass of cargo that a launch vehicle can launch into a given orbit—exceeds 100 tons.

In the long term, SpaceX hopes to use Starship to carry up to 100 people on “long-duration interplanetary flights.”

This launch is Starship's 14th test flight. It takes place without a crew, and its goal is to put the ship into orbit around the Earth for the first time.

Both stages are scheduled to land at sea today. However, usually during a controlled return the booster is planned to be captured by a special system on the launch tower. This is part of SpaceX's program to create a fully reusable spacecraft.

The rockets that paved the way for Starship

SpaceX was founded in 2002 and has since developed several spacecraft and rockets, including the Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which carried astronauts to the International Space Station.

One of the heads of the SpaceX engineering division, Bill Riley, calls these and other developments “building blocks” towards the creation of Starship.

It is Starship that SpaceX hopes to ultimately send to the Moon.

However, this may take time. Back in 2016, Musk said that he plans to send the Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018. Eight years have already passed since the scheduled date.

Not all of Starship's recent suborbital tests have gone smoothly.