SpaceX’s 14th test flight of its enormous Starlink spacecraft took off from the company’s test facilities in South Texas Monday this morning, blasting off in a huge and now-familiar enormous cloud of dust and debris. The world’s most powerful rocket roared into the sky, gaining speed just as planned.
After reaching just over 171 miles and a ground speed of over 16,000 mph, SpaceX’s Dan Huot made the official call.
“Starship is orbital,” he said, to rapturous cheers at SpaceX HQ. “Starship’s in space. It’s in orbit. That feels so good to say.”
The successful orbital insertion marks a major step in the right direction for SpaceX’s development of its massively ambitious launch platform after three years and 13 explosive, full-scale test launches — in addition to plenty of prototypes that were obliterated on the launchpad.
