SpaceX's Starship rocket is now orbiting Earth following lift-off from Texas - watch live footage above
The SpaceX team have decided to end the mission early, without Starship making the planned six orbits of Earth. The craft is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean after a three-hour mission
Earlier, as the rocket made its way to orbit, its booster successfully detached from the upper stage and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico
There was drama as engineers had to decide if they would send the rocket to orbit after an engine issue. Our science reporter explains sending it to orbit makes it more dangerous
SpaceX describes Starship as "the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed" and says it will eventually carry crew and cargo "to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond"
The aim of the spacecraft - which will undergo its 14th test flight today - is to be able to carry up to 100 people on "long-duration, inter-planetary flights"
Image source, SpaceXStarship is now starting its de-orbit burn, about two hours and 12 minutes into the flight.
It is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean in about an hour.
It was supposed to de-orbit about nine hours into the mission.
SpaceX has announced that the mission is ending early, with the ship reaching its first checkpoint about 90 minutes into the flight.
Starship is preparing for its de-orbit burn, says SpaceX on social media.
The burn will last about 11 seconds, marking the start of its return to Earth.
Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman has congratulated SpaceX on its Starship mission.
Writing on X he said it was a, external "gorgeous launch, getting Ship to orbit and managing every step in a safe, responsible, and especially inspirational way".
He added that Nasa is "excited to help where we can and for Starship missions to become routine!"
In 2024, Isaacman became the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space.
Image source, SpaceXThe first new satellite exits the side of the Starship rocket
Starlink satellites delivered into orbit will 'greatly' increase user speeds – SpaceX
One of the objectives of the mission, which has already been completed, was the delivery of 26 "next generation" Starlink V3 satellites into orbit.
Those join the existing Starlink constellation in low Earth orbit which deliver broadband internet on Earth.
The new satellites added today will "greatly expand the network's capacity and user speeds", SpaceX says.
As we reported earlier, the satellites were carried into orbit by the Starship. After exiting the Starship they unfold their antennas and make initial contact with the ground and the rest of the satellite constellation via radio and laser links, SpaceX says.
Despite returning the craft early, the SpaceX host says: "this has been a wildly successful day so far".
All 26 Starlink V3 satellites have been deployed, as we reported earlier.
In an updated timeline, the host says the deorbit burn will happen around two hours and 12 minutes into the flight. That is about 40 minutes from now.
Starship is then set to land in the Pacific Ocean a little over three hours into the mission.
For now, Starship is in orbit and will remain there, the host says.
The SpaceX livestream host has just said that Starship will return to Earth earlier than the planned 10-hour flight in space.
"We are looking like we are going to take our first checkpoint and come back early," the host says. "Essentially all that means is we're not going to spend as many orbits around Earth."
We’ll bring you more on this soon.
As we've just mentioned, the SpaceX team will decide within 20 minutes whether Starship will return home early.
According to the livestream, "some discussions" are under way. The mission had planned to have the rocket orbit the Earth six times.
"We're only going to continue if we're really confident that everything's looking healthy on those key systems," the SpaceX livestream host says. "A couple of minutes to go until we get to that point."
Image source, SpaceXThe light dots in the background are satellites that have just been deployed
All 26 Starlink V3 satellites have now been deployed from Starship.
SpaceX says it is shortly going to reach it's initial checkpoint. That’s where the team can check everything and decide whether Starship needs to return early.
If nothing goes wrong, Starship will complete its six orbits as planned and return to Earth in about nine hours.
An orbit takes around 90 minutes.
As we’ve been reporting, one of the six RVac engines shut down unexpectedly earlier, prompting a review of whether Starship should continue with its planned orbital insertion burn.
According to SpaceX's livestream, the RVac engines are not needed for the rest of the journey, but engineers need to review the health of the remaining engines, particularly the three sea-level engines.
The team has examined the indicators for those engines and decided they look healthy.
As a result, they voted for the operation to go ahead as planned.
We are watching Starship spit out 26 Starlink satellites, one by one.
The rocket is now over Madagascar, after passing over the southern tip of South Africa, having been launched from Texas in the US.
If everything goes as planned, the ship will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile, in just over nine hours.
Georgina Rannard
Climate and science reporter
The test flight today could be as long as 10 hours as the Starship capsule attempts to loop around Earth six times.
Until now, all Starship flights have been suborbital, meaning the capsules were high enough to reach space, but did not travel fast enough or long enough to complete a loop around the Earth. Most of the previous flights were about one hour.
Today, Starship is travelling at about 275km above Earth in orbit, and the company want to push the craft to its limits. That will involve collecting data throughout the flight and deploying new generation Starlink satellites.
The longer Starship can spend in orbit, the more SpaceX can test the craft and collect valuable information.
The long flight should also allow the company to line the capsule up for a re-entry point near the west coast of Chile, but if required, it could end the flight earlier.
Image source, SpaceXSpaceX is now undertaking the next phase of today's mission. Starship is starting to deploy its payload - 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
The process is set to last about 30 minutes.
We can now bring you more images, showing the Starship spacecraft launching and it reaching space.
The launch sent a huge plume of smoke into the air, with the rocket splitting in half as planned within minutes of take off.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, SpaceX
Image source, SpaceXWe are now seeing the spaceship enter orbit as the orbital insertion burn begins. It's the first time the rocket has entered Earth's orbit.
It it due to go around Earth six times, and deploy 26 Starlink satellites.
Image source, SpaceXThe SpaceX livestream has just confirmed that Starship will launch into orbit as planned.
It comes after one of the engines unexpectedly shut down and we heard some back and forth over whether they would send it to orbit Earth.
We will bring you further updates soon, and as a reminder, you can watch live above.
Georgina Rannard
Climate and science reporter
Some drama now as SpaceX decide whether or not to push Starship 14 into orbit. After reported issues with one of the craft's six RVacs or engines, the company's engineers need to make that final call in the next few minutes.
It's a big decision because once the Starship goes into Earth's orbit, it's much harder to pull the craft back down to Earth in case of a problem, so the flight becomes more dangerous.
SpaceX want to be sure that it is the right decision to push Starship into orbit, or whether to re-schedule this flight.
SpaceX says the Starship has experienced an engine issue during ascent, after one of the six engines shut down earlier than planned.
The vehicle has reached space successfully, but the team initially decided not to perform the additional burn required for orbital insertion.
The livestream presenter later said they are reassessing the situation, and has not yet completely ruled out an orbital attempt.
Image source, SpaceXThe engine has now been cut off on the Ship, the top part of the rocket that is remaining in flight.
The next stage will be deciding if they will orbit the Earth.
"We're only going to commit to orbit if everything is looking really healthy," the presenter on the SpaceX stream says.
He then says they will not be going into orbit today, but then says they are reassessing this.
The SpaceX livestream says one of the booster’s 33 engines may have shut down. But that doesn't stop Starship from launching.
"Things are going pretty well so far," the narrator says in the livestream as the speed passes 10,000km/h.
At the time of writing, the speed is already over 26,000km/h.
Image source, SpaceXThe Super Heavy booster, which separated from the upper stage about five minutes ago, has now splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
There was a large applause from SpaceX as the booster landed in the Gulf.
SpaceX does have the ability to catch it at a landing pad, but has opted not to for today's test.
