Starship reaches orbit and deploys satellites, but ends its mission early

SpaceX’s Starship finally made it into orbit on its 14th test flight, crossing a threshold its previous flights deliberately avoided: moving fast enough to keep falling around Earth rather than simply rising into space and coming back down. The vehicle also released 26 new satellites for the Starlink internet network—the first operational payload delivered by Starship—but an engine problem forced controllers to end the planned roughly 10-hour mission early with a Pacific splashdown. That makes this both a commercial proof point and an unfinished engineering test. SpaceX wants the giant, fully reusable system to carry far larger batches of satellites and eventually support NASA’s lunar plans, but routine use still depends on proving it can complete missions and return reliably.