Starship Flight 3

On 14 March 2024 — the twenty-second anniversary of SpaceX's founding — the third integrated Starship lifted from Boca Chica and became the first to reach orbital velocity. The trajectory was suborbital but crossed orbital speed along a path that intercepted the Indian Ocean about an hour later.

Two firsts came inside the coast phase: an internal propellant transfer between the ship's header and main tanks, and a cycle of the Starlink dispenser door. Neither was a flown payload, but neither system had been exercised in space before.

The vehicle did not survive the return. Booster 10's landing burn ignited only two of thirteen engines after filter-blockage problems persisted from the previous flight, and the booster broke apart 462 metres above the Gulf. Ship 28 entered the upper atmosphere in an uncontrolled roll; telemetry cut off minutes into reentry, and SpaceX concluded the ship had disintegrated before its planned splashdown.