SpaceX launches world’s most powerful rocket on milestone mission (VIDEO)

Starship has reached a stable Earth orbit and deployed 26 new-generation satellites Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully launched the Starship rocket, the most powerful vehicle ever flown, with the spacecraft reaching a stable orbit and deploying a batch of next-generation Starlink satellites.The spacecraft blasted off from Starbase, Texas, at about 7:49 AM local time on Monday, before reaching space roughly eight minutes later. During the ascent, one of the six engines shut down early, prompting SpaceX to assess whether the spacecraft was healthy enough to continue with the orbital portion of the mission.Despite the hiccup, controllers ultimately gave a “go for orbit” command, with a single engine restarting for a 19-second burn, placing the Starship roughly 275 km above Earth.All 13 previous Starship flights had followed deliberately suborbital paths that would naturally bring the spacecraft back into the atmosphere. The Starship is expected to make six full laps of Earth over about 10 hours and perform a controlled splashdown in the Pacific west of Chile.SpaceX encountered major problems during the previous test mission in late July, with the booster suffering ice-related engine ...