SpaceX's Starship, powered by its Super Heavy megarocket, entered low-Earth orbit for the first time during its 14th flight. The mission, which began early Monday morning, faced a setback when one of its six Raptor engines was lost. Despite this, SpaceX pushed on and successfully reached orbit, albeit with some compromises.

Originally planned to orbit Earth six times over nearly 10 hours, the mission was shortened to approximately three hours in orbit due to the engine issue. Starship then reentered the atmosphere and landed in the Pacific Ocean. During the flight, SpaceX deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and the Starlink team confirmed contact with all of them, which will eventually enhance internet speeds for customers.

Previous Starship missions carried V3 satellites but only into suborbital space as test flights. Flight 14 marked a major milestone by reaching orbit, while also testing the reusability of the Super Heavy rocket. After boosting Starship, Super Heavy landed in the Gulf of Mexico and will be retrieved, though not by the launch tower's "chopsticks" as in previous demonstrations.