SpaceX's Starship has entered Earth orbit for the first time and deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites, subsequently establishing communication with all satellites; a fully loaded Starship can carry 60 V3 satellites, and the company claims its network capacity is approximately equivalent to 20 Falcon 9 launches.

This marks the 14th flight test, with the payload bay side doors sequentially deploying the satellites. The V3 satellites exceed the practical payload of the Falcon 9 fairing in size and mass, with a single satellite launch mass of about 2 tons, designed for downlink speeds of about 1 terabit per second and uplink speeds of about 160 gigabits per second, which is about 10 times faster downlink and 22 times faster uplink compared to V2. In July, during the 13th suborbital flight, 20 V3 satellites were deployed, completing antenna, solar wing, and laser link tests before re-entering and burning up as planned. This batch of satellites will deploy their antennas and solar wings, using their own propulsion to raise their orbits, and are expected to start serving users within weeks. One of the six Raptor engines on the ascent stage shut down, but the mission still achieved orbit, with a perigee of about 276 kilometers; the original plan was for about 10 hours and 6 orbits, but engine issues caused the mission to splash down in the Pacific north of Hawaii about 3 hours later.

SpaceX states this is the first time Starship has delivered operational payloads into orbit, and some commentators have referred to it as the first revenue-generating flight. Starlink is the company's largest business, and V3 is also aimed at direct connections to mobile phones and Starshield military services. A fully loaded Starship can add about 60 terabits per second of capacity at once, while a single Falcon 9 V2 mission adds about 2.5 terabits. The external customer launch price for Falcon 9 is around $74 million, while the target cost for Starship is estimated by the market to be in the tens of millions per flight, potentially reducing the unit capacity cost by more than an order of magnitude.

The 26 satellites are a validation batch, not a production rhythm of 60. Successful communication only proves that measurement and control and laser links are operational, but does not guarantee that user rates in congested areas will double immediately. Falcon 9 continues to maintain the existing network with V2 Mini, while V3 capacity is locked to Starship reuse and launch frequency.

From a market mechanism perspective, this is an expected supply shock in capacity and throughput. Buyers are Starlink users lacking bandwidth and operators wanting direct connections to mobile phones; the seller, SpaceX, is simultaneously selling rockets and satellites. Funds are flowing back from subscriptions and launch services to manufacturing. Beneficiaries are the Starlink capacity narrative and Starship valuation; those under pressure are satellite broadband competitors still relying on medium-sized rockets to supplement the network. The shutdown of one engine serves as a reminder that reuse has not yet become routine, and the capacity multiplier is temporarily stuck on paper.

Supplementary data: V2 Mini weighs about 575 to 600 kilograms. The lateral ejection device is referred to as a candy machine-style dispenser. Some images show the satellites forming a formation after leaving the ship. The company's public listing documents have included the single flight of 60 satellites and a capacity increase of about 20 times.

Source: Public information