Starship Has Finally Gone Orbital. Now Comes the Hard Part

For a moment, it looked like Starship’s first attempt at orbital flight would end in failure.

SpaceX’s megarocket launched from Starbase, Texas, Monday morning, ascending amid a blaze of fire. Roughly two and a half minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy booster separated from the upper stage and went on to make a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship then performed an initial engine burn to reach space, but during the burn, one of its Raptor 3…