Overview
- SpaceX, which launched Monday from its Starbase site in Texas, sent Starship on a planned nearly 10‑hour mission to complete about six orbits and return for a Pacific splashdown.
- One of the upper‑stage Raptor engines shut down during ascent but flight controllers performed in‑flight redundancy checks and cleared the vehicle to continue toward orbital insertion.
- The Super Heavy booster separated and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after a boostback and landing burn, using hardware and software fixes intended to address prior ice clogging and relight problems.
- The upper stage is carrying 26 Starlink V3 satellites—three fitted with cameras to photograph the heat shield—and the flight includes the first reuse of two flown heat‑shield tiles to gather reentry data.
- If the upper stage completes payload deployment and a controlled deorbit, SpaceX could begin revenue flights for Starlink and advance Starship reuse and NASA certification, and engineers and regulators will now monitor telemetry during the remaining orbits and planned splashdown west of Chile.