Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink V3 satellites
Key points
What happened: On 28 September 2026, SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time on Flight 14, launched from Starbase, Texas. Once in orbit it deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites one by one at roughly 269 km altitude. Elon Musk posted: "All 26 Starlink V3 operational satellites deployed and operating nominally." This was Starship's first orbital payload, although SpaceX still counts the mission as a test flight.
- According to SpaceX, each V3 satellite handles about 10 times the data of the V2 Mini satellites that Falcon 9 launches 20 to 30 at a time. V3s are too large for Falcon 9, so Starship is what makes them possible.
- At full scale, one Starship is meant to carry 60 V3s, roughly the network capacity of 20 Falcon 9 launches.
- Analysts cited by Reuters estimate this single launch adds hundreds of millions of dollars in projected Starlink revenue through added customer capacity.
- Much of SpaceX's roughly $2tn market value, three months after its June IPO, rests on Starship working. The vehicle has cost more than $15bn to develop, and all 13 previous flights since 2023 were suborbital.
- Starship is also NASA's lander for the Artemis Moon programme.
