SpaceX’s Starship Achieves Orbital Flight, Deploys 26 New‑Generation Starlink Satellites

On Monday, SpaceX’s Starship rocket launched from South Texas and reached low‑Earth orbit for the first time on a test flight. The 14th test of the vehicle, it used its upper stage Raptor engines to achieve orbital velocity, a departure from the suborbital trajectories of earlier flights. Inside the cargo bay, 26 of the company’s newest Starlink broadband satellites were packed flat and released one by one via a pulley‑cable system, marking the first deployment of this next‑generation constellation from Starship. The successful orbit insertion demonstrates the rocket’s full‑thrust capability and expands the payload options for future missions.