SpaceX has broken another barrier, blasting off and reaching Earth’s orbit for the first time.
Elon Musk’s space company launched the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built on Monday morning to send 26 of the latest Starlink satellites into orbit, adding to the 11,000 already there that provide internet service around the world, The Associated Press reported.
In all, SpaceX plans to eventually deploy 100,000 Starlink V3s, Space.com reported
It was the company’s 14th full-scale launch from Texas in three years.
Starship will circle the Earth six times over ten hours and is scheduled to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The first-stage booster fell into the Gulf of Mexico a few minutes after launch.
It did lose an engine as it went up, but it was cleared to go into orbit, CBS News reported.
After the planned splashdowns for this mission, the next one will try to retrieve the rocket for reuse either by the end of the year or early next year. The rocket was designed to be reusable.
If all goes well, the missions are another key for SpaceX to support NASA’s Artemis moon landing in two years. The return to the moon will need several Super Heavy-Starship tanker flights to fuel the lander before it docks with a NASA Orion crew capsule in lunar orbit, and to carry them to the surface of the moon and back.
Additional missions include autonomous orbital refueling before the Artemis mission blasts off.
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