BOCA CHICA, Texas — SpaceX’s Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time Monday after launching from the company’s Starbase facility on the Texas coast, marking a major test for the rocket central to the company’s business plans and NASA’s future moon missions. The uncrewed spacecraft lifted off at 7:48 a.m. Central time. Its Super Heavy booster fired 33 engines, and Starship separated from the booster about two and a half minutes into the flight. At 171 feet tall, Starship then continued into space, reaching the orbital speeds the vehicle had not achieved on its previous, suborbital test flights. One of Starship’s six engines failed during the ascent. SpaceX’s flight team considered whether the vehicle could continue and, about 22 minutes into the mission, decided it was safe to proceed. The mission plan was then shortened from roughly 10 hours and six orbits to about three hours. During the flight, Starship released 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, adding them to SpaceX’s constellation of thousands of internet satellites. SpaceX says Starship is the only vehicle capable of launching the larger V3 satellites. The booster did not attempt a return to the Texas launch site. Instead, it simulated a landing offshore in the Gulf of Mexico as SpaceX tested hardware and software changes. The company’s longer-term goal is to recover and reuse both the booster and spacecraft. Starship’s heat shield is among the systems under test; three of the deployed satellites carried cameras intended to collect data on the shield. The spacecraft was expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the flight. SpaceX has said the launch profile includes options to leave the planned orbital path and return to Earth safely. The test is also significant for NASA, which selected SpaceX to develop Starship as a crewed lunar landing system for future Artemis missions. NASA plans to test docking between its Orion capsule and Starship, as well as a lunar lander from Blue Origin, during Artemis III, currently slated for launch late next year. For South Texas, Monday’s launch underscored Starbase’s growing role in SpaceX’s testing and launch operations. The company has also announced plans for a large facility in Louisiana, with a stated goal of beginning Starship launches there in 2029.