--- title: SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time description: SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time during a test flight from South Texas, despite one of six Raptor engines on the upper... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time | daily.dev og:description: SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time during a test flight from South Texas, despite one of six Raptor engines on the upper... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/u4HchkhUS.png og:image:alt: SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time during a test flight from South Texas, despite one of six Raptor engines on the upper stage failing shortly after stage separation. The Super Heavy booster completed its cleanest simulated water landing to date. This was the V3 version of the vehicle, first tested in May, showing rapid hardware iteration. Reaching orbit is seen as the key threshold before SpaceX can pursue reusability and reliability goals needed for real payloads, including NASA's Artemis moon lander and speculative plans like orbital data centers. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke was among those congratulating the company. ## Content SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time on its 14th test flight, launching from Starbase in South Texas and deploying the first 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX says each satellite adds 1 terabit per second of capacity. It wasn't a clean run. The upper stage lost one of its six Raptor engines shortly after stage separation, and SpaceX briefly called off the orbital attempt before reversing course minutes later. The flight was then cut short. It lasted about three hours instead of the planned nearly 10, and the ship made an early splashdown in the Pacific because of the engine problems. The Super Heavy booster did a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico. One engine failed and a second didn't relight, but the landing was still the cleanest yet for the V3 version of Starship, which first flew in May. Orbit is the milestone that matters for what comes next: regular commercial missions, NASA's Artemis Moon-landing plans, and Elon Musk's wider ambitions for the rocket, including satellite data centers. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the mission. @tobi congratulated SpaceX on bringing Starship to orbit. @mitsuhiko put the payload in perspective for Europeans. Starship delivered 49 tonnes, all Starlink satellites, which is two-thirds of the total payload all ESA Ariane 6 missions delivered in two years. "We can and must do better!" he wrote. ## Elsewhere in launch news Rocket Lab signed its largest Electron deal yet, a 20-mission agreement with Japanese radar-imaging company Synspective. That brings the pair's total bookings to 47 launches. Blue Origin is asking the FAA to approve up to 50 New Glenn launches and 50 booster landings per year. Google and India's TakeMe2Space also plan related launches this week. ## Questions this post answers ### Did SpaceX's Starship reach orbit yet? Yes, Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time during a test flight launched from SpaceX's South Texas facility. One of the six Raptor engines on the upper stage failed shortly after stage separation, and the orbital attempt was briefly called off before being resumed a few minutes later. The vehicle still made it to orbit, and this test used the V3 version of Starship, first tested in May. _Track major spaceflight milestones like this one as they unfold on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 68 comments across x (as of 2026-10-02). **TL;DR:** Reactions are largely celebratory about Starship's first orbital flight, with confusion early on about whether the engine failure would scuttle the mission, while a side conversation compares the payload tonnage to Ariane 6 and debates Europe's competitiveness in spaceflight. **Sentiment:** 55% positive · 35% mixed · 10% skeptical **The case for** - Many see reaching orbit despite an engine failure as an impressive engineering and operations win. - The single-launch payload tonnage compared to Ariane 6's two-year output is seen as a striking capability gap. - Some frame Starship as already approaching Falcon 9-level launch economics even while flying expendable. **The pushback** - Some question whether comparing raw tonnage is a fair or meaningful metric versus cost, cadence, or mission type per launch. - A few argue Europe's Ariane program persists more for political/industrial reasons (e.g., keeping solid-fuel expertise) than pure launch competitiveness. - Some raise environmental concerns about orbital debris, emissions, or unchecked expansion of launch activity. **By community** - x (positive): Replies are mostly hype and congratulations on reaching orbit, with some confusion about the engine failure and its resolution. - x (mixed): Discussion splits between excitement over the payload comparison to Ariane 6 and pushback questioning the fairness of that comparison or Europe's broader constraints. **Hottest debate:** Whether comparing Starship's single-launch payload tonnage to Ariane 6's two-year total is a meaningful measure of capability versus a misleading headline stat. **Open questions** - What exactly changed in the flight software or decision process that allowed the mission to continue to orbit despite the engine failure? - How does Starship's cost and cadence per launch actually compare to Ariane 6 for equivalent mission types? **Highlights** > @mitsuhiko They are going to ship so much tonnage in orbit that planet earth's orbit itself is going to shift. Europe will try to counterbalance that by producing an insurmountable amount of paperwork. > — [polyMatto on x · 14 points](https://x.com/polyMatto/status/2104646157146407198) > @mitsuhiko Tonnage is a useful headline, but I'd compare how often each can deliver to the orbit customers need and what each launch costs > — [damkalupa on x · 2 points, 1 comments](https://x.com/damkalupa/status/2104623158112202813) > @mitsuhiko Ariane is about keeping solid fuel boosters current for the french nukes at EU expense payload is the figleaf which helps to secure budgets so the result is well within the expected range of outcomes > — [mhaberler1 on x · 3 points](https://x.com/mhaberler1/status/2104625963372040649) > @mitsuhiko Do a quick search instead of just dunking with a single number 🤷 yes we can do better, and working on that even. Ariane is still competitive for many type of missions like GTO. Also physics, Kouru is a better launch site until they can launch from the equator. > — [PamphileRoy on x · 1 points](https://x.com/PamphileRoy/status/2104657239499817238) > @mitsuhiko 49T is a wild stat, exactly why it was built. It's equivalent to someone delivering something on a bike with UberEats compared to what you could pack in an 18 Wheel truck. > — [DumbEinstein on x · 2 points](https://x.com/DumbEinstein/status/2104632861123035607) **Source threads** - [x](https://x.com/tobi/status/2104560867530694788) · 0 points · 34 comments - [x](https://x.com/mitsuhiko/status/2104614258332127723) · 0 points · 34 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [SpaceX just launched Starship V3 — its most powerful megarocket yet — into space for the 1st time in spectacular Flight 12 test \(video\)](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-just-launched-starship-v3-its-most-powerful-megarocket-yet-into-space-for-the-1st-time-in-44o5bog6d) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Starship flight 13 worked. Next up: catching the ship.](https://daily.dev/posts/starship-flight-13-worked-next-up-catching-the-ship--barljosar) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [SpaceX finally got exactly what it needed from Starship V2](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-finally-got-exactly-what-it-needed-from-starship-v2-t4hc5tkxg) · Ars Technica · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [SpaceX will try to put Starship in orbit for the first time on September 22](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-will-try-to-put-starship-in-orbit-for-the-first-time-on-september-22-cfhi5fsia) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#spacex](https://daily.dev/tags/spacex) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus"},"datePublished":"2026-09-28T13:44:57.434Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T14:39:11.824Z","description":"SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time during a test flight from South Texas, despite one of six Raptor engines on the upper...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cd91a9ee34f1d5b43f73c6c5cf6457ac?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cd91a9ee34f1d5b43f73c6c5cf6457ac?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"spacex","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"SpaceX's Starship reaches orbit for the first time"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-starship-reaches-orbit-for-the-first-time-u4hchkhus#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Did SpaceX's Starship reach orbit yet?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time during a test flight launched from SpaceX's South Texas facility. One of the six Raptor engines on the upper stage failed shortly after stage separation, and the orbital attempt was briefly called off before being resumed a few minutes later. The vehicle still made it to orbit, and this test used the V3 version of Starship, first tested in May. Track major spaceflight milestones like this one as they unfold on daily.dev."}}]} ```