{"text":[[{"start":9.6,"text":"SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully reached orbit on Monday, marking a significant milestone for chief executive Elon Musk following the company’s record-breaking public listing in June."}],[{"start":20.4,"text":"The 400ft rocket blasted off from Starbase in south Texas at 7.49am local time. The mission briefly looked at risk after one of Starship’s six engines shut down too soon. After a few tense minutes, however, the company decided to push on with the flight."}],[{"start":38.48,"text":"Starship, the largest rocket system ever developed, at the cost of $15bn, is pivotal to Musk’s ambitions to win more contracts from the Nasa space agency and transport humans to the Moon and Mars."}],[{"start":48.4,"text":"Capable of carrying up to 250 tonnes and designed to be fully reusable, it represents the future of the company as it winds down its smaller Falcon rocket, which conducts more than a hundred launches a year."}],[{"start":60.344,"text":"After entering orbit, Starship deployed 26 active Starlink V3 satellites, the first of a new generation of devices intended to increase broadband coverage and speed."}],[{"start":69.68,"text":"“All 26 Starlink V3 operational satellites deployed and operating nominally,” Musk wrote on X. He has said the newer version has 10 times the capacity of the older generation and he expects a “very rapid increase in revenue” from the service, which now has more than 12mn customers."}],[{"start":87.418,"text":"Because of the engine malfunction, SpaceX de-orbited Starship earlier than planned after just three hours. The vehicle re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and landed vertically in the Pacific Ocean before falling on to its side and exploding."}],[{"start":101.6,"text":"The “Super Heavy” booster that sent Starship into orbit had already splashed down in a controlled manner in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Starbase."}],[{"start":108.788,"text":"The Starship rocket first reached space in late 2023 and captured the public imagination when the reusable Super Heavy booster was caught with giant “Mechazilla” robotic arms on its return to Earth in October 2024."}],[{"start":121.76,"text":"Since then, SpaceX has suffered multiple setbacks that called into question the viability of the project. Rockets have blown up on the launch pad, spun out of control and exploded in the atmosphere or failed to deploy satellites because of door malfunctions."}],[{"start":137.243,"text":"SpaceX raised $75bn at a valuation of $2tn in June, the largest initial public offering in history. Before listing, Musk merged the company with his AI start-up xAI and social media platform X."}],[{"start":150.64,"text":"The rocket group’s shares closed down 2.2 per cent on Monday and have retreated 8 per cent since the IPO. In its first earnings statement last month, the company revealed that capital expenditure reached $28.5bn in the first half of the year — far exceeding expectations — as it invested heavily in AI."}],[{"start":175.68,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790642974_5662.mp3"}