SpaceX deploys V3 Starlink satellites as Starship reaches orbit

• Fourteenth Starship test launch sees Elon Musk’s new rocket release next-gen comms satellites
• The successful flight is the first time Starship has reached orbit and released its payload
• But the flight was cut short and came to a fiery end due to a failed rocket

SpaceX’s next generation of rocket successfully achieved orbit for the first time on Monday, deploying 26 high-capacity V3 Starlink satellites that will boost the firm’s communications constellation.

But while the launch and deployment succeeded, SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s latest space venture came to a fiery ending, after a faulty engine caused SpaceX to bring Starship back to Earth seven hours earlier than originally planned.

The flight itself almost didn’t happen, as early into what was Starship’s fourteenth test flight – launched from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas – one of its rockets was lost during the ascent, casting doubt on the vehicle’s ability to reach orbit. However, after a number of tests, the SpaceX team decided to continue with the flight and, 12 minutes later, the payload door opened to begin the deployment of the V3 satellites at an altitude of roughly 161 miles.

“All 26 Starlink V3 operational ​satellites deployed and operating nominally," Musk wrote on X.

The V3 satellites support 1 Tbit/s of downlink capacity and 160 Gbit/s of uplink capacity, which is significantly more than Starlink’s existing V2 satellites. Its antennas support 2,048 beams each way (the V2 arrays support 192 downlink and 144 uplink beams). SpaceX expects the V3 satellites to start serving customers within a few weeks, subject to testing.

Musk has made no secret of his plans to create a satellite communications system that can compete with terrestrial mobile network operators. To achieve it, SpaceX plans to build a constellation featuring around 100,000 satellites – which would mean launching some 10,000 new satellites a year – by 2030.

If the company is to achieve this goal, Starship will play a vital role, offering the ability to carry cargo equivalent to nearly five Falcon 9 rockets at once, while being capable of re-use, like its predecessor, which transformed the economics of rocket launches.

The move comes amid a boom in satellite communications. Global spending on low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications services is projected to reach $14.8bn in 2026, according to research firm Gartner.

The launch is also important for Starlink rivals looking to deploy new satellites, with it increasingly competitive to secure launch slots, at least according to Telesat’s chief operating officer, Glenn Katz, when he spoke to TelecomTV at the recent launch of the Canadian satellite firm’s Lightspeed gateway at Orange’s teleport facility in France – see ‘Shared DNA’ key to Orange’s new partnership with Telesat.

“It is very competitive at the moment,” Katz acknowledged, “but we secured our launch slots with SpaceX several years ago and we are on the manifest.”

Despite the success of the launch, the test flight wasn’t perfect, with one of Starship’s three main engines shutting down prematurely once the vehicle reached space. The original plan was for Starship to complete six orbits on the Earth, but SpaceX chose to cut the mission short after three hours in space instead of the planned 10 hours.

Starship’s controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean culminated in a thruster manoeuvre, which flipped the vehicle vertically. It hit the sea in a nose-up position, igniting the base of the rocket and creating a large fireball. 

“Out of an abundance of caution given the engine issue experienced during ascent, the flight control team decided to limit the duration spent on orbit and proceeded with deorbiting Starship to a splashdown location in the northern Pacific Ocean,” SpaceX said in its summary of the mission. “This area was one of two pre-coordinated landing zones identified before launch that was cleared of sea and air traffic.”

Despite the complications, Musk seemed happy with the launch, writing on X: “Starship is 2 to 3 years away from hourly flights.” The next scheduled launch is set to take place before the end of this year, according to SpaceX’s schedule.

- James Pearce, Editor, TelecomTV