WORLDTECHStarship returns to Earth; rocket splashes down north of Hawaii after three-hour flight
Full credit
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What happened
One of the Starship upper stage’s six Raptor engines shut down early during the climb to an initially suborbital trajectory. After assessing telemetry, Elon Musk’s flight control team decided the spacecraft was otherwise healthy and a second engine firing using a single Raptor engine completed the climb to orbit.
Right after that, the Starship upper stage deployed 26 third-generation Starlink internet satellites that will join the company’s ever growing constellation in the first use of the new rocket to launch operational satellites in low-Earth orbit. The Super Heavy first stage booster, generating some 16 million pounds of thrust — twice the power of NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket — rapidly accelerated as it consumed propellant (the fuel a rocket burns) and lost weight, climbing out of the thick lower atmosphere along a southeasterly trajectory. SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy rocket lifts off from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, to begin the Starship Flight 14 mission.
Sources & evidence
- Spaceflight Now Reporting source
Starship returns to Earth; rocket splashes down north of Hawaii after three-hour flight ↗
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/09/28/starship-returns-to-earth-rocket-splashes-down-north-of-hawaii-after-three-hour-flight/