SpaceX's flagship rocket, Starship, successfully entered Earth orbit for the first time on Monday, completing the most ambitious mission of the commercial space company to date. This means that this giant rocket, which cost over $15 billion and took nearly a decade to develop, has finally taken a crucial step from suborbital testing to orbital flight.
According to Reuters, Starship was launched from Starbase, Texas at 7:49 am local time on Monday. Despite one engine shutting down prematurely during the flight, the spacecraft continued to perform critical ignition maneuvers after real-time evaluation by engineers and successfully entered the predetermined orbit.
The mission was originally planned to last about 10 hours and orbit the Earth six times, but SpaceX ultimately decided to end the flight ahead of schedule. The flight team is expected to command the Starship to deorbit 3 hours after it enters orbit.
During its orbit, Starship also deployed 26 V3 version Starlink satellites for the first time. Musk posted on X that these V3 version satellites are operating normally. The download capacity of a single Starlink satellite in V3 version is about 10 times that of the active V2 satellite.
The rapid reversal of news also triggered pre market volatility. After the announcement of the engine malfunction, SpaceX's related stocks fell about 2% in pre-market trading; Subsequently, the company confirmed that it would still attempt to enter the market, and the stock price quickly rebounded to near parity. Ultimately, with the confirmation of successful entry into orbit, market sentiment tends to stabilize.
After the opening of the US stock market on Monday, SpaceX opened high and fell low, ultimately closing down 2.16%. On that day, the Nasdaq closed down 0.92%.
Engine Failure Scare: Engineers Real Time Reverse Judgment
The dramatic turning point of this mission occurred shortly after launch. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot initially stated during the company's live broadcast that due to one engine shutting down prematurely, Starship will not be able to enter orbit, and the originally planned deployment of 26 upgraded Starlink satellites will also be cancelled as a result.
However, the engineers subsequently re evaluated the spacecraft's status and confirmed that it still had the conditions to perform critical orbital ignition. Huot immediately updated his previous judgment during the live broadcast and announced that he would continue to push forward with the attempt to enter orbit. In the end, Starship successfully completed orbit ignition and entered the designated orbit, achieving this critical milestone.
Significance of entering orbit: a key milestone that has been delayed for many years
Entering orbit is an important benchmark for verifying the payload delivery capability of new carrier rockets. For Starship, this goal is significantly behind SpaceX's previously envisioned timeline - Musk had expected Starship to reach orbit in 2022 and planned to begin deploying satellites in 2023.
Since 2023, Starship has not completed its orbital flight in its previous 13 test flights. Although SpaceX has invested over $15 billion in this project and the development cycle is close to ten years, the 14th flight has finally achieved orbit.
According to the plan, this mission will complete 6 orbits around the Earth, with a total distance of about 10 hours, and ultimately splash down in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile. It will also be the longest flight time of Starship to date.
But SpaceX ultimately decided to end the flight ahead of schedule. The flight team is expected to command the Starship to deorbit 3 hours after it enters orbit. At noon local time, it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
V3 Satellite Debut: Commercial Process Accelerates
Another important highlight of this mission is the first entry of the new generation Starlink V3 satellite into orbit. It is reported that the single download capacity of V3 satellite is about 1000 gigabits per second, which is about 10 times the 96 gigabits per second of the active V2 satellite, and is expected to significantly improve the service capacity of Starlink broadband network.
The successful deployment of V3 satellite also means that Starship is moving from a test aircraft to an actual commercial launch system. SpaceX stated that the first commercial service of Starship is expected to commence in 2028. With greater payload capacity, Starship is expected to reduce the cost of per unit payload entering orbit and further expand the application space of commercial aerospace.
Musk has previously stated that the ultimate goal of Starship is to achieve hundreds or even thousands of launches per year. If this goal is ultimately achieved, its launch frequency will far exceed the operating mode of traditional spacecraft.
