SpaceX just officially posted the full recap of Starship Flight 14, and it's a huge milestone Starship reached orbit for the first time and delivered real payload to space Here's everything that happened, and why it matters: 1. The launch: Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas on September 28 on its first ever attempt to reach orbit. The Super Heavy booster lit all 33 Raptor 3 engines. One engine shut down during the climb, but the booster still completed its job and pushed Starship toward space. 2. Stage separation: Starship lit its own 6 engines while still attached to the booster (hot-staging) and separated cleanly. 3. The booster tested its limits: Super Heavy flipped around and relit 31 of 33 engines to head back. SpaceX deliberately used up nearly all the remaining liquid oxygen in the booster's main tank during this burn. Why? To find out exactly how much margin the booster has before future missions where it flies back to the launch site. It then relit 11 of 13 engines for landing, throttled down to 5, then 3, and splashed down in the Gulf of America. 4. Starship handled an engine failure: One of Starship's 6 engines shut down early on the way up. The other 5 simply burned longer to make up the difference, and Starship still reached its planned path. That's the redundancy doing exactly what it was designed for. 5. First time in orbit: Engineers checked the ship, confirmed the engines needed for later burns were healthy, and gave the go. Starship relit one engine in space and pushed itself into orbit around Earth for the first time ever. 6. First real payload: Starship deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX made contact with every single one. They'll now run checkouts and raise their orbits before serving customers. 7. First deorbit burn: Because of the engine issue on the way up, the team played it safe and shortened the time in orbit. Starship relit one engine to slow itself down and drop out of orbit, the first time it has ever done that. This is a critical skill: a ship that can reach orbit must also be able to come back on command. 8. Splashdown: Starship came through reentry, relit all 3 of its landing engines, flipped upright, and splashed down on target in the Pacific Ocean. What Flight 14 proved: • Starship can reach orbit • Starship can deliver real satellites • Starship can survive engine failures and still finish the mission • Starship can relight in space and bring itself home from orbit This is the rocket that will launch the next generation of Starlink, and eventually carry humans to the Moon and Mars