Go For Orbit

In late September 2026, SpaceX's Starship entered orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink satellites, a milestone Engadget described as a major step for the company's cosmic ambitions. The celebration was cut short when a failed engine forced the mission to end shortly after reaching orbit, preventing the intended six-revolution trek through Earth's orbit and falling well short of its 10-hour goal. Engadget reported that this result is typical for Starship, as the company's "fail fast, learn fast" mindset recasts the program's failures — anywhere between four and 11 of 14 total launches, depending on how generous you are — as opportunities for growth.

The Starship program has had a turbulent history since its first test flight in April 2023, which exploded 65 miles short of its intended climb. After that initial test combusted within minutes, the second flight saw the first-stage booster separate before both booster and vessel met fiery ends. Five months later, the third test flight reached an altitude of 145 miles before disintegrating on its return. SpaceX then had two back-to-back successful launches, culminating in its launch tower successfully catching Starship's first-stage booster. Test six saw SpaceX call off its mechanical arm before crashing the Super Heavy booster into the Gulf of Mexico. Two months later, Starship 7 exploded over the Bahamas just eight minutes after takeoff, sparking investigations by both the FAA and the Turks and Caicos government. The FAA launched another investigation after Starship's eighth test exploded in space, grounding planes across Florida. Starship 9 achieved minor improvements before spinning out of control, forcing SpaceX to cancel its planned deployment of 8 mock satellites.

Starship followed the disastrous run with a pair of its most successful tests. In August 2025, Starship released its first cargo of Starlink satellites. Two months later, SpaceX successfully launched and landed its 11th Starship rocket, fulfilling all major objectives. Starship's twelfth test launched its upgraded Starship V3 rocket; while it accomplished several objectives, engine failures caused it to crash into the Gulf, triggering yet another FAA investigation. In July 2026, Starship 13 successfully deployed 20 of Starlink's new high-powered satellites before its first-stage booster failed to stick the landing. Engadget noted that considering its scattershot history, Starship 14's semi-successful run is par for the course.

The largest and most powerful rocket ever assembled, Starship has a cargo capacity five times larger than SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, making it essential for SpaceX's grander ambitions including its million-satellite constellation, NASA's lunar missions and Musk's Mars colony dream. According to analytics firm BryceTech, SpaceX launched 85 percent of all spacecraft in 2025, including over half the world's orbital launches. Starlink's 9,800 active satellites currently account for over half of the world's total, according to satellite tracker Orbital Radar. SpaceX's proposed 1 million-satellite datacenter constellation Starmind is impossible without a high-capacity reusable rocket.

NASA announced earlier in 2026 that the program had fallen behind schedule by at least two years since the Agency selected SpaceX's rocket to carry its Artemis moon lander in 2021. NASA hopes to return to the moon in 2028; to do so, Starship must meet the Artemis III deadline in summer 2027. With China aiming to reach the moon by decade's end, the pressure is mounting. In 2025, Musk predicted there was a 50 percent chance Starship would land on Mars in 2026, but with the once-every-26-months Mars launch window closing in November 2026, that target appears unlikely. In a Q3 earnings call, Musk stated that SpaceX will attempt to catch both the rocket and its booster on the November 13 test, making it the "first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered." During the event, Musk said the mission was "more likely than not" to succeed.