Starship 41 ends early after the release of the Starlink satellites

The first orbit test of Starship 41, the SpaceX shuttle designed for future trips to the Moon and Mars, ended almost seven hours early. It was Elon Musk's own company that decided on the early return after the first routine check of the shuttle's second stage, when it was in orbit. The mission is still considered a success because the Super Heavy rocket duly delivered Starship into orbit, which in turn released all 26 Starlink satellites it had on board, as expected. However, it was unable to complete the six orbits planned by Elon Musk's company.

NASA Chief Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX for the "breathtaking launch" and for managing each phase "safely, responsibly and above all for being a source of inspiration." NASA, he added, "is excited to help where we can, so that Starship missions become routine." For SpaceX this test is crucial: Once orbit has been reached - the company writes on its website - the next phase of Starship's development will be able to begin, which aims to make it completely and rapidly reusable". The launch took place from Starbase, SpaceX's launch base in Texas and was particularly awaited because, after 13 suborbital flight tests, Starship would finally go into orbit. 2 minutes and 34 seconds after launch, Starship separated from the Super Heavy rocket, which returned with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, the shuttle ignited its Raptor engines to continue the journey. One shut down earlier than expected, but the ignition phase was still completed, as was the orbit insertion maneuver, which took place at an altitude of 275 kilometers, as scheduled.

About half an hour later, the release of the latest generation Starlink satellites (V3) began, this time authentic and not copies as had happened in the suborbital tests. Once released, the satellites deployed their antennas and solar panels and then fired their onboard thrusters to reach their final orbit. Three of them, however, with their cameras were programmed to take images of Starship, in order to allow SpaceX technicians to inspect the heat shield tiles. At that point the shuttle should have continued its journey for another eight hours, to return with a landing off the coast of Chile. But it didn't go like this: it is at this point that SpaceX decided to return the shuttle immediately. One of the Raptor engines fired to lift Starship out of orbit and the shuttle began its descent, finishing its journey with a spectacular splashdown in the North Pacific Ocean. In the end, almost all objectives were achieved: the orbit entry maneuver was performed regularly, the 26 Starlinks were deployed as scheduled and, despite the strong advance, the orbit exit maneuver was performed using a single Raptor engine.