DOMINANT ANGLE
Vilnius is first focusing on the technical performance: after thirteen suborbital test flights and more than 15 billion dollars invested since 2023, Starship has finally reached orbit, but the Lithuanian press recalls that significant obstacles still separate the device from commercial or lunar use.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
The rocket, over 120 meters long, lifted off at 8:48 local time (15:48 Lithuanian time) from Starbase, Texas, for its fourteenth test flight.
- 02
The upper stage reached Earth orbit at an altitude of 277 km and over 26,300 km/h, before deploying 26 new-generation Starlink satellites.
- 03
Since 2023, the thirteen previous test flights had been limited to suborbital trajectories, in a program that has already cost SpaceX more than $15 billion.
ANALYSIS
Vilnius, September 29, 2026. Lithuania's economic and general press followed the night of Monday, September 28, with a mix of technical admiration and caution. For Kauno diena and Verslo žinios, the central event can be summed up in one phrase: after thirteen suborbital test flights since 2023, SpaceX's Starship rocket finally reached Earth's orbit on its fourteenth flight.
The two publications report the same raw figures. The vehicle, over 120 meters tall, took off at 8:48 local time — 15:48 Lithuanian time — from the Starbase complex near Brownsville, Texas. The upper stage separated from the launcher and entered orbit at over 26,300 km/h, at an altitude of 277 kilometers. The flight, planned to last about ten hours and six orbits around the Earth before a splashdown in the Pacific, was to deploy 26 new Starlink satellites of the latest generation.
Kauno diena directly qualifies the attempt as a "sėkmingas bandymas" — a successful test — and presents it as a decisive step towards future manned missions to the Moon and Mars. Verslo žinios adopts the same factual framework but emphasizes the cost of the program: according to the economic daily, the development of Starship has already cost SpaceX over $15 billion since the launch of full-configuration tests in 2023.
The two newspapers recall, almost word for word, that the black and silver rocket remains the largest and most powerful flying object ever built, and that it has undergone numerous modifications before this flight. They also stress that Elon Musk hopes to make it a fully reusable launcher, but that significant technical obstacles remain to be overcome before Starship can be deemed ready for commercial flights or lunar and Martian missions.
Neither of the two articles details the incidents that occurred during the flight or the actual duration; their coverage, published before the complete outcome of the mission, stops at the announced flight plan. Kauno diena finally recalls that three other SpaceX launches are scheduled this week, including a manned flight to the International Space Station — a sign, for the Lithuanian press, that this launch rate remains the true measure of the program's maturity, more than this single test flight.
