Starship Reaches Orbit With 26 Starlink V3 Satellites as Amazon Leo Stalls

The launch is the newest development in a week that has seen the orbital internet business, military space planning and space-based power all move at once. CNBC reported that the rocket lifted off at 8:48 a.m. ET. The ship reached orbit around 8:15 a.m. local time, according to the same account. The booster made what SpaceX called a soft splashdown off the Texas coast.

One number stands out. Starship is designed to put 60 Starlink V3 satellites into orbit per flight, SpaceX says, about 20 times a Falcon 9 load. The 26 satellites deployed on Monday are the first of that generation to fly. They are bigger and more powerful than earlier versions, built at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington, and carry solar arrays that generate twice as much power as prior generations.

The stakes are not only technical. SpaceX went public in June in the largest IPO on record and is now valued at about $2 trillion, CNBC reported. Starlink was its largest and only profitable segment as of the second quarter, with around 11,000 active satellites in orbit, against roughly 650 for competitor Eutelsat OneWeb.

Amazon's Leo constellation falls further behind

The Verge reported on 28 September that Amazon's rival Leo constellation has not launched a satellite since 2 July, when 29 satellites went up on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. That brings Leo's launched total to 396, against Starlink's more than 11,000. The gap is widening rather than closing: The Verge notes that 552 Starlink satellites have launched since that July date.

"Following its last launch, Amazon Leo launch systems director Melissa Wuerl said that the company had 'a clear path to increase launch and deployment cadence,'" The Verge reported. That has not happened.

The cause is mostly grounded rockets. ULA's Vulcan has been held down by the US Space Force since February 2026 after a booster anomaly that is still under investigation. Blue Origin's New Glenn has been grounded since its only launchpad was destroyed in May, according to The Verge. Arianespace's Ariane 6 is also affected by an unspecified component problem expected to disrupt launches for the rest of 2026, and 36 Leo satellites previously planned for an October Ariane 64 flight have been scrubbed from the European spaceport website.

Amazon has received an extension to its FCC deadline to launch half of its planned 3,232 satellites, The Verge reported, with the condition that it must move quickly. The mid-2026 target the company set for commercial availability has passed without an update.

None of this is to say Starship has arrived. The 14th flight is the first of 14 that was intended to reach orbit at all; the previous 13 were not. SpaceX wants the vehicle to circle the planet multiple times and land off the coast of Chile, and it is preparing the rocket for a NASA test flight next year and for a crewed lunar landing. Elon Musk had previously said Starship would reach orbit in 2022 and begin deploying satellites in 2023, CNBC noted.

Britain stands up a squadron to defend its satellites

Military space moved too. The Next Web reported on 28 September that the RAF has created No. III Space Effects Squadron, which the Ministry of Defence says is the first UK unit dedicated to disrupting, degrading and denying threats to British satellites. The announcement was made on 23 September at the first UK Space Power Conference by Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth, the Chief of the Air Staff.

"Space no longer supports operations from the sidelines. It's a domain of direct competition, where our military advantage can be won or lost," Smyth said, according to The Next Web. The squadron joins No. I Space Operations Squadron and No. II Space Warning Squadron, which watch for threats; the new unit will act against them, using electronic warfare and supporting both defensive and offensive operations.

The MoD has not said much more. A spokesperson told The Register that the details are classified, The Next Web reported. The government has set aside £880m from 2026/27 to 2029/30 for space-based surveillance and what it calls space control, and its wider space strategy commits £7.8bn to defence, satellites and the European Space Agency to 2030. The satellites the squadron protects support missile warning, mobile networks and weather forecasts, and emergency services and the power grid also depend on them.

A laser power test rides the same launch wave

WIRED reported on 28 September that Star Catcher, a startup based in Jacksonville, Florida, is preparing to launch a prototype this week that will beam energy to another satellite in orbit. The satellite, called Protostar, will use tracking technology to transmit power to an untethered cubesat launching at the same time. If it works, WIRED says it would be the first time lasers have beamed energy between two untethered objects in space.

The company's pitch is that satellites should not have to carry oversized batteries. Star Catcher says its power nodes gather sunlight through lenses and refine it into wavelengths that can deliver up to 10 times more power than diffuse sunlight, then emit a laser beam at satellites in need. The firm announced a $65m funding round earlier this year and won a $30m award from the US Space Force, and it has signed 40 letters of intent and 10 power purchase agreements, according to WIRED.

The physics remain hard. Hanieh Fattahi, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, told WIRED that a 2023 Naval Research Laboratory experiment, which ran a space laser for 100 days but moved a beam less than 5 feet, operated at only 11 percent efficiency. She added that tracking, heat management and long-term operation in vacuum still need work. Star Catcher's ground record is more than 1 kilowatt delivered to off-the-shelf solar panels, enough to run a microwave, which is some distance from powering a telecoms satellite or a space data centre.

Energy and land are the same problem on the ground. CleanTechnica reported on 27 September that Cultivate Power has fitted an 11-megawatt solar array onto a 22-acre site in Elgin, Illinois, hemmed in by two residential subdivisions, high-voltage lines, train tracks and a wetland. Planted Solar's racking system needs about 2 acres per MWp instead of the conventional 5 to 7, CleanTechnica reported, and Chronicle Media's Bill Dwyer reported that subscribers will save $13.9m on ComEd bills over 40 years.

The through line across all of it: orbit is becoming infrastructure, and infrastructure gets defended, powered and regulated. SpaceX has 11,000 satellites up and a rocket that can now reach orbit. Amazon has 396 and no clear date for its next launch.