Elon Musk SpaceX's Starship launch on 28 September 2026 reached orbit for the first time, even after one of its six Raptor engines shut down on the way up. Starship Flight 14, explained.
Elon Musk posted "First orbital flight of Starship successful!" Here's how it happened, the 26 Starlink V3 satellites it deployed, why SpaceX brought it home early, and what it means for NASA's Artemis Moon plan.
It wasn't the first engine-out for this version: Flight 12 lost one in May and carried on.
This film explains what orbit actually takes, what we know (and don't) about the engine shutdown, the three ships lost in 2025, what reaching orbit unlocks for Starlink and NASA's revised Moon plan, and where China's Long March 10B and Blue Origin's New Glenn stand.
0:00 Engine out, orbit reached
0:31 What Flight 14 did
1:21 What orbit actually takes
2:19 One engine out: known and unknown
3:28 Flights 7, 8 and 9: three ships lost
4:36 What changed, and Flight 12
5:51 What orbit buys, and what's still ahead
7:39 The competition: Long March 10B and New Glenn
9:04 Falcon 1, 18 years to the day
What SpaceX says: the engine that shut down was one of the three vacuum Raptors, and the flight was cut short "out of an abundance of caution given the engine issue experienced during ascent." What is NOT known yet: why the engine stopped.
Sources
- SpaceX Flight 14 post-flight summary (spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14)
- CBS News, ABC News, TechCrunch, Space.com, Spaceflight Now: Flight 14 reporting, 28 Sep 2026
- SpaceX mishap investigation findings for Flights 7, 8 and 9 (as summarised on Wikipedia's flight-test pages)
- NASA: Artemis III mission page; "How NASA's Artemis III Lander Test Will Pave Way for Moon Landings"
- Long March 10 / 10B and New Glenn: Wikipedia, citing CMSA and Blue Origin statements
- Falcon 1 Flight 4, 28 Sep 2008: Space.com, Wikipedia
Visuals
- Diagrams and maps are original schematics, not to scale. Map data: Natural Earth (public domain).
- Flight 5 launch/catch video: Anne Toal, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons). All footage is ARCHIVE or GENERIC and labelled on screen; no Flight 14 footage is used.
- Flight 8 debris from the ISS: NASA / Don Pettit (public domain)
- Starship HLS + Orion: artist concept, NASA/SpaceX (public domain)
- New Glenn: U.S. Space Force photo, Senior Airman Samuel Becker (public domain)
- Long March 10B recovery: China News Service, CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Falcon 1: SpaceX, CC0
- NASA video (public domain): Starship Flight 6 seen from the ISS (Nov 2024); Earth views from the ISS, 4K (2019–20, generic); Artemis II launch (Apr 2026); "Introducing Artemis III" docking-test footage (Jun 2026)
Narration is a synthetic voice. Independent production, not affiliated with or endorsed by SpaceX, NASA, Blue Origin or any Chinese space agency.
So which should come first for Flight 15: catching the ship, or flying the full mission? Tell us in the comments.
