SpaceX Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time on its 14th test flight

US-based aviation and space company SpaceX managed to reach Earth orbit for the first time in the 14th test flight of its Starship rocket. Starship successfully deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites into orbit as part of its first operational payload flight.

SpaceX, the US-based aviation and space company owned by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, has achieved a significant success. The Starship rocket, launched from the Starbase facility on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico at 15:46 Türkiye time, managed to reach Earth orbit on the flight carrying its first operational payload. While 26 Starlink V3 satellites were successfully deployed into orbit, this mission was recorded as the 14th test flight before the routine flights that the company plans to launch later this year.

CRITICAL THRESHOLD HAS BEEN EXCEEDED

All of the previous 13 test flights of Starship, whose development process has been going on for about 10 years and cost the company more than 15 billion dollars, since 2023, were limited to suborbital altitude. The goal of "reaching orbit" achieved in this flight is considered a critical threshold for new rockets designed to carry payload into space. Elon Musk states that they ultimately aim to reach an unprecedented transportation speed in the space industry by launching hundreds or thousands of Starships per year.