SpaceX Starship reaches Earth orbit for the first time

Musk system circles (almost) The Starship Rocket at Least Managed to Reach Orbit

2026-10-06 Source: dpa | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket has finally managed to reach orbit around the Earth. NASA is also feeling a new boost ...

This is how the SpaceX specialists were working just a few years ago on the world’s largest rocket—the Starship. Now, Elon Musk’s company has reached a milestone as part of a test flight: orbit around the Earth! But there was also a bitter aftertaste...(Source: Spacex) — This is how the SpaceX specialists were working just a few years ago on the world’s largest rocket—the Starship. Now, Elon Musk’s company has reached a milestone as part of a test flight: orbit around the Earth! But there was also a bitter aftertaste...
(Source: Spacex)

The largest rocket system ever built by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX lifted off from a spaceport in the US state of Texas. The upper stage then entered an orbit about 275 kilometers above Earth and finally, around three hours later, plunged into the Pacific in a fireball—mind you, in a controlled manner! The lower stage had already crashed into the sea in a controlled descent near the launch site. But it didn’t quite work out completely! Because a roughly ten-hour mission had actually been planned, during which the rocket was to enter Earth orbit and circle the Earth a total of about six times. After the successful orbital insertion, however, SpaceX announced that the giant rocket was to return to Earth after only about three hours. No reason was initially given, but one of the engines had failed beforehand.

Elon Musk speaks of a successful test

SpaceX founder Elon Musk nevertheless called it a successful first orbital flight of Starship. The head of the US space agency NASA, Jared Isaacman, offered his congratulations: “Beautiful launch! The Ship was inserted into orbit and every step was managed in a safe, responsible, and especially inspiring way.” NASA and the rest of the interested public were now looking forward to helping where they can and to Starship missions becoming routine. As part of the mission, SpaceX also deployed Starlink satellites for the first time, according to SpaceX. These so-called V3 satellites are supposed to unfold their antennas after deployment, deploy solar panels, and then establish connections to Earth and other Starlink satellites. That also worked exactly as planned.

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