BS BULLETIN:

• SpaceX’s massive Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time Monday on its 14th full-scale test flight.
• The spacecraft deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites — Starship’s first operational payload.
• It pulled off the milestone despite an engine shutting down early and briefly throwing the orbital attempt into doubt.

There have been explosions.

There have been spectacular fireballs.

There have been plenty of people confidently explaining why Elon Musk’s enormous stainless-steel rocket wasn’t going to work.

Starship apparently missed the memo.

SpaceX’s giant rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time Monday, marking a major milestone for a program Musk intends to use for everything from deploying satellites to sending humans back to the moon — and eventually Mars.

And Starship didn’t exactly take the easy route.

One of the spacecraft’s Raptor engines shut down prematurely during ascent, briefly raising doubts about whether SpaceX would even attempt to continue into orbit.

During the company’s livestream, SpaceX initially announced that the vehicle would not proceed.

Then the engineers looked at the data.

Minutes later, Mission Control reversed course.

Starship was healthy enough to try.

Another engine burn followed.

And then came the announcement SpaceX had been chasing:

“Starship is orbital.”

The spacecraft reached roughly 170 miles above Earth and began traveling at orbital velocity.

Then it did something else Starship had never done before.

It went to work.

The spacecraft deployed 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, marking Starship’s first delivery of an operational payload into orbit.

Those satellites are considerably more powerful than the previous generation and represent a major reason SpaceX needs Starship’s enormous carrying capacity in the first place.

The flight wasn’t flawless.

SpaceX originally planned for Starship to spend nearly 10 hours completing roughly six orbits around Earth. Instead, controllers ended the mission after approximately three hours following the earlier engine trouble.

Starship performed a controlled reentry and splashed down in the Pacific near Hawaii.

So there remains an enormous amount for SpaceX to prove.

The company still wants to demonstrate rapid reusability, orbital refueling and eventually catching the returning spacecraft with the launch tower — capabilities essential to Musk’s much bigger ambitions.

But one item can officially come off the list.

After years of testing, setbacks and some extremely expensive fireworks, Starship has reached orbit.

MY QUICK TAKE

One of my favorite things about Elon Musk is the graveyard of confident predictions sitting behind him.

That’s not because Musk is always right.  It’s because watching somebody attempt something enormous inevitably attracts a peculiar species of spectator who doesn’t say, “I don’t think this will work.” They say it can’t work. Those are very different statements.

Science is wonderful that way.

It has absolutely no respect for your old social-media posts.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

• Associated Press — SpaceX’s supersized Starship launches into orbit for the first time but flight ends early
• TechCrunch — SpaceX’s Starship rocket reaches orbit for the first time
• Via Satellite — SpaceX’s Starship reaches orbit, cuts 10-hour mission short after engine issue
• SpaceX — Starship