Spectators gather near SpaceX's Starbase facility to watch Starship Flight 14 launch, in Starbase, Texas, on Monday. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

Today’s mission notched some big wins — and a few moments of concern.

SpaceX is still, for example, having issues with engine reliability. The Super Heavy rocket booster performed well on the way up, but appeared to have one engine cut out early. It then only relit 31 of 33 engines as it guided itself back to Earth. Relighting engines is key for Super Heavy to guide itself back to a safe landing.

Meanwhile, the upper Starship spacecraft, or “ship,” had one of its six engines shut down prematurely on the way up to space. SpaceX didn’t need to use that engine again after the first burn, so the company opted to move ahead with the mission — giving Starship the green light to fire itself to orbit.

Then came the biggest wins of the day: Starship made it to orbit and safely deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, marking the first time the rocket has deployed an operational payload.

With the number of Starlink V3 satellites on board and the boosted capacity of this new version of the satellites, SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot noted that today’s test flight “was like 20 Falcon 9 flights in terms of bandwidth.”

Still, SpaceX chose to end the mission early, leaving Starship in orbit for just a few hours rather than the planned 10 hours.

Starship then headed for its most intense reentry yet. It plunged back into Earth’s atmosphere while traveling more than 20 times the speed of sound. Starship made it back and completed a controlled landing at a pre-planned site in the Pacific Ocean, though the ship did not make as soft a touchdown as it did on the last mission. After Flight 13 in July, Starship landed so softly that SpaceX is working to bring the vehicle all the way back to Texas after hauling it onto a ship.

It’s not clear whether SpaceX can attempt to make a similar recovery after today’s mission. But every piece of data the company can gather from recovered hardware could be extremely valuable.

Exactly when Starship will launch again — and how the next test mission will look — is not yet clear.

Musk had said he hoped to start landing both Super Heavy and the upper Ship back on dry land in the near future, paving the way for SpaceX to begin reusing both parts of the rocket — something that has never been done before. But it’s unclear whether the engine issues seen today will push off those goals further into the future.