NASA Chief Praises SpaceX Starship Orbital Launch, Says NASA Happy to Help

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, former CEO of Shift4 Payments Inc., praised the successful orbital launch of Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. on Monday.

Jared Isaacman Calls Starship Launch "Inspiring"

Isaacman, in a post on social media platform X quoting SpaceX, congratulated SpaceX, calling the Starship flight test a "magnificent launch" and praising SpaceX for sending the ship into orbit and "managing every step in a safe, responsible, and especially inspiring way."

The NASA chief then stated that the agency, along with "interested members of the public," is "happy to help," expressing hope that Starship missions will "become the norm!" in the future.

Congratulations @SpaceX! Magnificent launch, sending the ship into orbit and managing every step in a safe, responsible, and especially inspiring way. @NASA, like all interested members of the public, is happy to help where we can and looks forward to Starship missions becoming the norm!

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, September 28, 2026

SpaceX conducted the 14th flight test of Starship on Monday after multiple delays, deploying the first batch of Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, joining the constellation of over 11,000 Starlink satellites SpaceX has already deployed in low Earth orbit. Musk also expressed optimism about Starlink, stating the service could become Earth's internet in the future.

Elon Musk Touts Hourly Starship Flights

During the pre-launch buildup, Musk predicted the Starship rocket is two to three years away from achieving hourly launches, having previously stated that SpaceX's goal is to reach over 30 launches per day and 10,000 launches per year by 2030.

Musk also stated that the cost of SpaceX's orbital data center satellites will be far lower than Wall Street analysts' projections, which estimate costs between $160 billion and $180 billion.

Stock movement: SpaceX shares rose 0.23% to $145.80 in Tuesday's after-hours trading.