WASHINGTON : The approximately 122-metre-tall rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas on Friday, carrying the company’s advanced third-generation Starlink satellites for the first time. The satellites are designed to deliver significantly greater network capacity, wider bandwidth and faster internet speeds than earlier models.

During the roughly hour-long suborbital mission, the satellites extended their solar arrays and antennas and briefly communicated with the existing Starlink network through high-capacity laser links. As planned, they later re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up because they were not deployed into permanent orbit.

The Starship spacecraft also completed its atmospheric re-entry and made an intact splashdown in the Indian Ocean, recording one of its strongest heat-shield performances to date. However, the Super Heavy booster failed to complete a controlled water landing after experiencing engine-relight problems and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

The successful satellite deployment marks an important milestone in SpaceX’s efforts to begin operational Starship missions by the end of 2026. The company plans to use the reusable rocket to rapidly expand the Starlink internet constellation and support future projects, including space-based artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Starship is also central to SpaceX’s partnership with NASA under the Artemis programme. NASA plans to test docking operations involving commercial lunar landers in 2027, ahead of a targeted crewed landing on the Moon in early 2028.

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