SpaceX launches giant Starship rocket on first orbital mission

The launch from the company's Starbase facility in South Texas was the 14th flight of the Starship system, but the first intended to reach orbit. The previous 13 flights took suborbital trajectories.

The mission is hauling 26 next-generation Starlink Version 3 satellites, which SpaceX plans to deploy during the flight. The satellites are designed to provide greater capacity for Starlink, the company's satellite internet service.

Starship is the largest rocket developed by SpaceX and is designed to be fully reusable. The vehicle consists of a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft named Starship.

SpaceX is developing the system to carry satellites, cargo, and eventually people into Earth's orbit, and to support future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The spacecraft is expected to circle Earth about six times during a flight of nearly 10 hours before firing an engine to leave orbit and splash down into the Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

The company has said Starship will be needed to launch its larger Starlink satellites, which are to increase the capacity of its growing satellite internet system.

The flight also represents a major test of Starship's ability to move beyond repeated suborbital test flights toward regular orbital missions.

SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to utilize Starship for future deep-space missions, including NASA's Artemis program aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon, as well as eventual crewed flights to Mars.

Earlier, Qazinform reported that NASA and SpaceX are targeting October 1 for the launch of the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).