IT·Science News

‘Starship is in orbit’: SpaceX’s giant rocket circles Earth for the first time

SpaceX sent its Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful ever built, into orbit around Earth for the first time on Monday 28 September, The Guardian reports. Launching from Starbase in Texas on its 14th test flight, Starship lost an engine on the way up, but mission controllers decided it was safe to go ahead with the burn that put it into orbit at about 275km. The plan was six loops over nearly 10 hours, but more than an hour in, SpaceX said the ship would come back early, aiming to land in the north Pacific about three hours after launch.

“This is an important milestone for SpaceX, with Starship successfully reaching orbit, and at the first attempt.” — Prof Martin Barstow, University of Leicester, via The Guardian

How each outlet framed it

• The Guardian — the drama: cheers at mission control after early hints the attempt might be dropped, 26 next-generation Starlink satellites deployed, three of them carrying cameras to photograph the heat shield, and relief for investors after SpaceX’s stock market debut in June.
• Al Jazeera — what comes next: the next Starship is meant to be caught by giant mechanical arms at the launch pad, and NASA’s Artemis III, as soon as next summer, will include a docking test with Starship. Musk said SpaceX is being “extremely cautious” about flying over land.

Where accounts differ: The Guardian quoted the livestream narrator as saying “Starship is in orbit”, while Al Jazeera, citing AP and Reuters, quoted mission control as announcing “Starship is orbital”.