SpaceX's Starship rocket suffers alarming mid-flight scare on first attempt to reach orbit

Published: 09:27 EDT, 28 September 2026 | Updated: 10:11 EDT, 28 September 2026 SpaceX made history Monday morning as the world’s most powerful rocket blasted off on its first attempt to reach orbit.The uncrewed 40-story-tall vehicle, consisting of a ​Super Heavy booster rocket topped by the main ⁠upper-stage Starship vessel, thundered off its launch pad ​at around 8.46am ET from SpaceX's Starbase complex along ​the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville. But the mission faced an early scare when one of the spacecraft’s Raptor 3 engines unexpectedly shut down about 15 minutes after launch, leaving the ground team to decide whether to press ahead.About 20 minutes into the flight, mission control gave the go-ahead to attempt orbit, drawing cheers across Starbase, and about five minutes later, Starship reached the target.The flight is expected to see Starship complete six full laps of Earth over about 10 hours. Monday’s test is set to end with Starship landing in the Pacific near Chile. SpaceX ultimately hopes to bring the spacecraft home and fly it again.After 13 test flights that never reached orbit, SpaceX is attempting to send Starship around Earth for the first time and bring it safely back down. Success would strengthen confidence that a modified version can be ready for NASA’s planned Artemis moon landing in 2028. SpaceX's Starship launched from Starbase in South Texas at 8.46am ET This was the rocket's first attempt at an orbital launchAt two minutes and 34 seconds into the flight, Starship executed a successful hot stage to separate from the Super Heavy Booster 21, which completed a landing burn above its target splashdown in the Gulf.At about 9am ET, the rocket completed the engine burn that carried it into space, despite one of its Raptor 3 engines shutting down early. The spacecraft compensated, while SpaceX engineers assessed the issue and weighed whether to continue into orbit. Despite the early engine shutdown, controllers cleared Starship to make the burn needed to enter orbit. About eight and a half minutes after the burn, a dispenser in the rocket’s nose began releasing 26 third-generation Starlink satellites, each with 10 times the capacity of its predecessor.As of 9.54am, Starship had deployed its payload of Starlinks. Engineers plan to monitor Starship as it circles Earth six times before a single-engine burn would take it out of orbit, about eight hours and 52 minutes after launch.This is a breaking news story... More updates to come. The massive rocket suffered an engine shutdown mid-flight, forcing the team on the ground to rethink the orbital mission