Starship reaches orbit and delivers its first operational payload

SpaceX — Flight 14, 26 Starlink V3 satellites — On its 14th flight, on 28 Sep 2026, Starship reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 third-generation Starlink satellites — the first time the vehicle carried operational spacecraft rather than test hardware. Controllers brought the ship down ahead of plan, about three hours after launch, to a splashdown north of Hawaii; the Super Heavy booster made a soft splashdown in the Gulf as planned rather than returning to the tower. Neither stage was caught, by design, and two booster engines and one ship engine had problems. What this establishes is orbit and payload delivery; the step that makes Starship economically different, catching and reflying the ship, has not been attempted on an orbital flight.