SpaceX's Starship rocket finally made it to orbit. The giant vehicle, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, lifted off from the company's Starbase site in southern Texas on Monday and climbed into Earth orbit for the first time, Mission Control confirmed to cheers during the flight. Along the way it deployed 26 of SpaceX's newest Starlink satellites, which separated one by one over the hours-long mission. It almost didn't happen. One of Starship's engines shut down prematurely during the climb, forcing flight controllers into several tense minutes of deliberation. With the remaining engines performing normally and the failed engine no longer needed for the trajectory, the team decided to press ahead — and the spacecraft reached its intended orbit, circling the planet at about 17,500 miles per hour. The planned flight was supposed to last almost 10 hours and loop the Earth six times from an altitude of 170 miles, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Chile. But hours later, SpaceX said it ended the mission early "out of an abundance of caution" because of the engine trouble. After just a couple of laps, the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific and splashed down north of Hawaii, roughly three hours after launch. The vehicle tipped over on the water and erupted in flames, ending the debut orbital flight on a dramatic note. The first-stage booster, a new Super Heavy design, was never meant to come home. It detached within minutes of liftoff and dropped into the Gulf of Mexico, as planned. SpaceX wants to be certain the vehicle behaves before attempting to fly it back to the launch site, where giant mechanical arms would catch the descending spacecraft. Monday's flight was Starship's 14th full-scale test launch in three years from Texas. All previous flights had ventured no farther than the Indian Ocean, roughly halfway around the world, and most ended in failure — vehicles breaking apart or plunging in flames. SpaceX salvaged its most recent Starship from the Indian Ocean in July, and engineers modified this spacecraft's heat shield based on what they learned from inspecting the recovered vehicle. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on reaching orbit and managing the mission in what he called a safe and responsible way. The milestone matters well beyond SpaceX. The company is pushing hard to certify Starship for orbital flight, a crucial step on the road to returning astronauts to the moon. NASA's Artemis III mission, which could fly as soon as next summer, envisions a three-launch docking exercise in Earth orbit: an Orion capsule carrying astronauts would link up with two lunar landers — one built by Blue Origin, known as Blue Moon, and one derived from Starship. Artemis IV, currently set for no sooner than 2028, would put astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century, riding in whichever lander is ready first. Later moon missions would alternate between the two landers. SpaceX's founder Elon Musk originally designed Starship to carry the first settlers to Mars. For now, though, the focus is on the moon and on hauling satellites into orbit by the dozen, eventually replacing the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, with a third planned for Louisiana. Whether the next Starship returns to the launch pad depends on what engineers find when they examine Monday's engine trouble. If the problems are resolved, SpaceX could attempt to catch the vehicle with the mechanical arms and refly it as early as late this year or early next year. For a program that has produced plenty of spectacular failures, reaching orbit is the first concrete sign that Starship can do what it was designed to do.