SUMMARYSpaceX completed the first orbital launch of its Starship rocket, reaching low-Earth orbit after 14 test flights. The mission also deployed the first 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, opening the way for greater capacity in SpaceX’s broadband network. The launch took place Monday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Welcome to Edition 9.13 of the Rocket Report!
This week, SpaceX celebrated the first orbital launch of its new Starship rocket. I'm not sure many people, at least those outside of SpaceX, expected it to take 14 flights of Starship before it technically reached low-Earth orbit, but Monday morning's launch finally added that to SpaceX's list of accomplishments with its new super-heavy rocket. Starship had gone 99 percent of the way to orbit before, only held back by safety concerns around the possibility of stranding the huge rocket in space.
What was most notable for SpaceX with this Starship flight was that it unlocked a massive growth potential for Starlink, with the first 26 of the network's new-generation Starlink V3 satellites successfully deployed Monday.