SpaceX’s Starship has reached orbit for the first time, marking a major milestone for SpaceX and its plans for future space missions.

The uncrewed spacecraft launched Monday from SpaceX’s base in southern Texas. Mission control confirmed that Starship had reached orbit during a livestream of the launch.

The flight nearly ran into trouble when one of the rocket’s engines shut down earlier than planned. However, the remaining engines continued to operate, allowing flight controllers to proceed with the mission.

SpaceX’s Starship carried 26 of the company’s latest Starlink satellites into orbit. The satellites are intended to join thousands of existing Starlink spacecraft providing internet services.

The launch marked Starship’s 14th full-scale flight from Texas. Earlier SpaceX test flights travelled no farther than the Indian Ocean and included several failures.

For this mission, SpaceX planned for Starship to circle Earth six times over almost 10 hours. The spacecraft was then expected to make a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Chile.

SpaceX also took a cautious approach to the mission. The first-stage booster was expected to fall into the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to the Starbase launch site.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said the company wants to make sure Starship can operate safely before attempting to return it to the launch pad.

The 124-metre rocket was designed to be fully reusable. SpaceX hopes reusability will help reduce launch costs.

The company is also working toward using Starship for future missions to the Moon and Mars. NASA’s Artemis programme is expected to include Starship as part of planned lunar missions.

SpaceX plans to use Starship for satellite launches as well. The company aims to use the rocket to carry large numbers of satellites into orbit.

The company is also developing additional launch facilities. A second SpaceX Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, while another site is planned for Louisiana.

For SpaceX, the successful orbital flight represents another step toward making Starship a reusable system for transporting astronauts, satellites and other payloads into space.