Orbital insertion and engine anomaly

SpaceX conducted the fourteenth test flight of its Starship vehicle on 28 September 2026, launching from the Starbase facility in southern Texas near the Gulf of Mexico at 08:49 Eastern Daylight Time (12:49 GMT). The 120-meter stainless-steel vehicle, equivalent in height to a 40-story building, lifted off powered by 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster. During the upper stage ascent, one of the ship's six Raptor engines shut down prematurely. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot initially indicated that the vehicle might fail to reach orbit, but engineering teams confirmed sufficient redundancy to proceed. Starship executed an orbital burn roughly 25 minutes after launch, reaching an altitude between 269 and 276 kilometers at a speed of nearly 26,400 kilometers per hour.

Satellite deployment in orbit

While in Earth orbit, Starship released 26 third-generation Starlink V3 satellites individually into sustained trajectories. Each Starlink V3 unit adds one terabit per second of network capacity, contributing a total of 26 terabits per second to the SpaceX internet constellation, approximately ten times the capacity delivered by a single Falcon 9 launch of V2 mini satellites. SpaceX operators confirmed two-way communication with all 26 satellites after deployment. Three of the deployed satellites carried custom camera packages designed to inspect the condition of Starship's heat shield and fuselage, transmitting visual telemetry to ground teams to assist reusable thermal protection development.

Super Heavy booster33

Starship upper stage6

Super Heavy booster

33 engines

Starship upper stage

6 engines

Data from the article text

Descent and Pacific Ocean impact

SpaceX originally scheduled the Flight 14 mission to complete six orbits around Earth over approximately ten hours. Because of the upper stage engine anomaly, flight controllers reduced the mission duration to three hours and eight minutes. To prepare for atmospheric entry, controllers fired an in-space Raptor engine to secure the correct re-entry angle. Starship completed its descent through the atmosphere, performed a vertical flip maneuver, and reached the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii and west of Chile at approximately 11:58 Eastern Daylight Time (15:58 GMT). The vehicle tipped over and exploded upon ocean contact, an outcome SpaceX anticipated because the prototype was not designed for water recovery.

Following the ocean impact, SpaceX confirmed the completion of the flight profile.

“Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on Starship's first orbital flight!”

Booster performance and program milestones

The Super Heavy booster concluded its flight phase roughly seven minutes after launch, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. Some engines failed during the final descent burn. SpaceX had modified the booster's propellant filtration hardware and reignition software after Flight 13, in which three central engines experienced ice clogging during boostback maneuvers. Unlike the previous 13 test flights, which followed suborbital trajectories into the Indian Ocean, Flight 14 reached sustained orbit. SpaceX aims to begin commercial operations with Starship by late 2026, while NASA continues development with SpaceX on a lunar lander variant for the Artemis 4 mission planned for 2028 at the earliest.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman commended the test flight in a public statement.

“Congratulations SpaceX! Spectacular launch, taking the Ship to orbit and handling every step safely, responsibly, and especially inspirationally. NASA is excited to help however it can and see Starship missions become routine.”