STARBASE, Texas — SpaceX’s Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time Monday, achieving a historic milestone and then, just over an hour into a planned 10-hour mission, asking mission control whether it could “maybe head out a little early today.”
The rocket, which had been scheduled to circle the planet six times before splashing down west of Chile, reportedly radioed flight controllers after its first lap to say it had “gotten a lot done already” and would “finish the rest from home.”
“Everything was going great, and then we got a message that just said, ‘Hey, is it cool if I duck out?'” said a SpaceX flight director. “By the time anyone read it, it had already changed course for the North Pacific.”
Engineers stressed that the early exit was not a technical problem, describing it as “a very relatable moment” for a vehicle that has spent years on short suborbital hops and “clearly wasn’t ready for a full shift.”
The company also confirmed that Starship lost an engine on the way up, which the rocket later described as “basically a sick day for one of us.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk praised the flight on social media, calling it a massive success and noting that the rocket “worked about three hours, which is more than most people do on a Monday.”
Starship splashed down in the North Pacific roughly three hours after launch before erupting into a ball of flames, which SpaceX characterized as “clocking out.”
At the time of writing, SpaceX had scheduled a performance review for the Super Heavy booster, which left for the Gulf of Mexico minutes after launch and has not answered any messages since.
