The heavy-lift rocket Starship, designated as SpaceX, successfully entered orbit for the first time this morning. After reaching orbit, the spacecraft deployed an additional 26 high-capacity V3 Starlink satellites. These satellites will join the Starlink constellation and begin providing services to customers in the coming weeks.

This test flight almost failed to achieve orbit insertion and some of the key objectives. The reason was that a motor on the upper stage of the rocket carrying the payload, the “Ship” section, was lost during the ascent.

This time, the 14th test flight of Starship was launched from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Within a few minutes after takeoff, there was a concern that the aircraft would not be able to ignite and complete the combustion required to enter orbit, which meant that the planned deployment of the V3 satellite might not be possible. If Starship remains on a suborbital trajectory, the plan is to land in the Indian Ocean, just as during the last test flight in late July.

SpaceX Spokesperson Dan Huot stated in the live broadcast video of today's test flight at the company: 'The team has decided not to attempt to enter orbit anymore... This is definitely not the result we hoped to hear today.' However, he emphasized: 'We have not given up on entering orbit yet.'

After conducting a series of additional checks, SpaceX changed its judgment and determined that Starship could enter orbit after about 22 minutes of test flight. Subsequently, about three minutes later, an "Raptor" engine was ignited to send it into orbit.

In about 12 minutes, the payload hatch will open to prepare for the deployment of the first batch of 26 V3 satellites. Each V3 satellite is capable of providing approximately 1 Tbit /s of downstream capacity and 160 Gbit /s of upstream capacity; compared to the Starlink V2 satellites, this represents a tenfold increase in downstream capacity and a twenty-twofold increase in upstream capacity. As the V3 satellites are deployed on a larger scale, Starlink will seek to expand capacity, increase speed, and extend coverage to residential and corporate customers.

These V3 satellites were released through payload hatches similar to those of Starship. SpaceX described this process as being like a Pez candy box spitting out candies. In a previous Starship test flight, 20 V3 satellites were deployed, but those satellites were later “demised” and were sent into the Earth's atmosphere to burn up after a series of tests.

SpaceX Confirmed that Starlink has established contact with all 26 V3 satellites deployed today. After release, the satellites will be instructed to unfold their antennas and solar panels, and then use their own thrusters to ascend into orbit.

After completing a series of inspections, SpaceX expects that these V3 satellites will begin providing services to customers within a few weeks, but the company has not provided a specific timeline.

Today's deployment is just a part of the carrying capacity of Starship. SpaceX indicates that a fully loaded Starship can send up to 60 V3 satellites into orbit, which is about 20 times the launch capacity of 9 rockets carrying V2 satellites. SpaceX also plans to use Starship to deploy its “Starmind” orbital AI data center, and to support future lunar and Mars missions.

SpaceX indicates that today's plan is for Starship to complete six orbits of flight. This test flight will not attempt to "capture" the higher-level Ship aircraft. If this goal is achieved in the future, it will mark another step forward for the project towards a fully reusable platform.