SpaceX's Starship makes orbital debut

SpaceX's next-generation Starship rocket reached orbit for the first time on Monday despite having one of its engines shut down unexpectedly, overcoming a hitch mid-flight to deploy its first batch of new Starlink satellites in a truncated mission ending hours earlier than originally planned.

The uncrewed 40-story-tall vehicle, consisting of a Super Heavy booster rocket topped by the main upper-stage Starship vessel, thundered off its launch pad from SpaceX's Starbase complex along the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville.

The mission was scheduled to last 10 hours, but was reduced to three hours because of the engine problem. It was Starship's 14th flight since 2023, as Elon Musk's company plans to put the vehicle into routine use starting later this year.

SpaceX shares, which were up nearly 9% from the IPO price, were down about 1% on Monday.

The Super Heavy booster lofted the Starship upper stage into space before returning itself to Gulf waters for an engine-controlled splashdown, following hard landings for the booster on two previous missions. Some engines on that booster stopped working during its descent, SpaceX said.

Upon reaching space, one of Starship's three main engines shut down prematurely, a development that led SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot to announce on the company's live stream of the mission that the craft would be unable to reach orbit. "The team has made the call not to commit to orbit," Huot said.

But Huot reversed course minutes later after an update from engineers confirmed that the craft could still attempt an engine firing that would boost it into orbit, which Starship successfully did minutes later.