Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched its Starship into orbit for the first time, marking a key milestone en route to operational flight.
The 124 metre-tall Starship lifted off from the SpaceX Starbase facility in South Texas at 7.48am (local time), marking its 14th test flight to date.
The aim of this Flight 14 test was to deposit 26 next-generation V3 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). But it was also seen as a critical test of the vehicle’s readiness to fulfil Musk’s longer-term plans to make long-haul trips to Mars.
The supersized ‘Ship’ rocket uses a two-stage design. The lower stage is the Super Heavy booster, which has 33 Raptor engines to accelerate the payload into space.
The upper stage is the spacecraft itself, which has the ability to carry a payload of 100 metric tonnes. Once separated from the booster, its engines will push it into orbit. Both of these have been designed to be reusable.
Soon after lift-off, it looked like the mission may have to be aborted when one...