The largest rocket ever built cut its mission short Monday, with company SpaceX still calling the endeavor a success.
Starship took off from Starbase, Texas for its first attempt to enter orbit. The liftoff was successful, reaching about 170 miles away from Earth. SpaceX said the rocket lost one of its 33 engines in the launch, but the ship continued its ascent without it.
The company then announced the mission would conclude earlier than planned, descending after the craft’s first checkpoint. Starship splashed down in the Pacific Ocean three hours into its journey. No reason was provided for the change in plans.
Composed of an upper spacecraft known as Ship and propelled by a lower rocket called Super Heavy, the upper portion detached from Ship before sending it into orbit. The entire spacecraft stands at 407 feet tall, making it the biggest and most powerful rocket ever created.
The ship had planned to orbit Earth six times before reentering the atmosphere and touching down off the coast of Chile. Originally expected to take 10 hours, the mission was shortened within the first hour of the flight, with SpaceX adjusting the splashdown site to a region near Hawaii.
This marks the first time the company used Starship to release Starlink satellites into space. 26 Starlinks joined the system of internet satellites that are currently orbiting Earth, expected to start providing service within weeks.
Monday marked Starship’s 14th launch from its Texas base in three years. The previous journeys did not advance past the Indian Ocean and never broke through Earth’s atmosphere.
After past attempts ended in explosions, SpaceX founder Elon Musk purposefully planned for the Starship to not return to Starbase. If the craft burst into flames over audiences in Texas, Musk feared “[his] popularity would diminish very rapidly.” He called this mission “extremely cautious” at a business summit earlier in September.
Musk originally designed the spacecraft to touch down on Mars, planning to use the craft to populate the planet with its first inhabitants. At this point, Starship’s main goal is to add to the ever-growing fleet of Starlink satellites. Two more Starship launch sites are in the works in Florida and Louisiana.
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