Starship reaches orbit for the first time, ends in fireball

SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time on Monday, on its 14th test flight from Starbase, Texas. One of the ship's six engines shut down prematurely, but with the bad engine no longer needed, controllers decided after several tense minutes to proceed — "Starship is orbital," Mission Control announced to cheers.

The ship deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites — 26 terabits per second of new bandwidth, roughly 1% of the world's total — then reentered over the Pacific and splashed down north of Hawaii, where it tipped over and erupted in flames. SpaceX had cut the planned 10-hour, six-orbit flight to about three hours "out of an abundance of caution" over the engine trouble. The Super Heavy booster separately made a controlled soft water landing in the Gulf of Mexico. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated the company on managing "every step in a safe, responsible and especially inspirational way" — the flight is a step toward NASA's Artemis moon program.

Sources: AP via Phys.org, NY Post.