SpaceX's Giant Starship Rocket Reached Earth Orbit on Its First Try, but Engine Problems Forced It to Return to the Planet Early

On September 28, SpaceX achieved a major milestone as the company vies for a starring role in NASA’s planned missions to the moon. Its Starship—the biggest, most powerful rocket system ever made—reached Earth orbit on its first try after launching from Texas at 7:48 a.m. During the test flight, the spacecraft looped around the planet twice.

But Starship returned to Earth sooner than planned. That’s because before getting to Earth orbit, one of its engines had shut down, forcing engineers to decide whether to continue the test or bring the rocket back without accomplishing its goal. After a tense pause in plans during a livestream, SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said, “The go/no-go poll for orbit has finished—and we are go for orbit.” Did you know?

Need to know: How far to get to Earth orbit? To be in Earth orbit, you need to reach a boundary called the Kármán line that separates the planet’s atmosphere from outer space. It’s roughly 50 to 62 miles above sea level.

The announcement was met with raucous applause, after which Starship did accomplish its goal, albeit in an abbreviated trip. It was supposed to come back in about ten hours after circling the planet six times. Instead, the spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean in around three hours, and after releasing 26 Starlink satellites into space.

Nevertheless, “this is an important milestone for SpaceX, with Starship successfully reaching orbit, and at the first attempt,” Martin Barstow, an astrophysicist at the University of Leicester in England, tells the Guardian’s Ian Sample. It made headlines in 2024 when SpaceX launched the giant system, separated the spacecraft from the booster, and then successfully caught Super Heavy in two huge metal arms on its launch tower—also on the first try. Starship’s performance has significant implications for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon and establish an enduring presence there.

SpaceX is competing with Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, for a leading role in these missions. Both are developing systems to help humans land on the moon as part of the program and are vying over whose craft will be used for Artemis’ first crewed mission there, according to ’ Steve Gorman, Akash Sriram and Joey Roulette. Starship’s recent success is significant because entering Earth orbit is a prerequisite for traveling to the moon—and perhaps, one day, Mars.