SpaceX’s 14th Starship test flight reached low-Earth orbit for the first time, completing a milestone after earlier flights followed suborbital paths. The flight also deployed 26 of SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink satellites, which are too large to launch aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rockets.

The 407-foot rocket lifted off from South Texas with 33 Raptor engines producing up to 18 million pounds of thrust. Its Super Heavy booster made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while one of six upper-stage engines shut down early; after assessing the fault, mission managers proceeded with the orbit-insertion burn. SpaceX had planned cautiously to avoid leaving the roughly 100-ton vehicle stranded in orbit, where an uncontrolled return could pose a public-safety risk.