Starship Flight 13 Deploys 20 Starlink Satellites and Splashes Down Intact

SpaceX’s Starship rocket launched from Starbase, Texas, on Friday evening and sent its upper stage through a mostly successful test flight, deploying 20 next-generation Starlink satellites and making a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The booster, however, struck the Gulf of Mexico harder than planned after not all of its engines relit, according to Spaceflight Now and TechCrunch.

Spaceflight Now reported that the 407-foot rocket lifted off at 5:51 p.m. EDT with all 33 Raptor engines firing normally. It was the second test flight of the third-generation V3 design. A July 16 attempt ended in an automatic abort when four engines failed to start properly, and a reattempt on Thursday slipped 24 hours because of low clouds.

The Super Heavy booster flew its ascent and flip-back as planned, but only 10 of 13 engines restarted during descent, Spaceflight Now reported. It hit the Gulf on target but landed “hard,” Spaceflight Now said. TechCrunch reported that it was the second time a V3 booster has failed, after a separation failure on the first V3 flight in May, and said SpaceX had replaced six engines before this flight.

The upper stage fared better. All six of its engines operated smoothly on the climb, and it deployed 20 V3 Starlink satellites, Spaceflight Now reported. Six carried cameras to inspect the heat-shield tiles. The ship briefly reignited one Raptor in space, a capability future lunar missions will need, then reentered and made a splashdown northwest of Australia about 65 minutes after launch.

It stayed intact and floated after splashdown, which had not happened on earlier flights, according to Spaceflight Now. TechCrunch said that allowed a drone to inspect the heat shield and engines. The satellites were not meant to stay in orbit: both outlets reported that Starship cannot yet reach orbit, and the Starlinks were expected to burn up on reentry; TechCrunch put that about 20 minutes after deployment. TechCrunch said SpaceX communicated with all of them while they were in space.

The flight carries business as well as engineering weight. TechCrunch reported that it was SpaceX’s first Starship launch since its June initial public offering, and that the stock fell from a peak above $200 to $115 at Friday’s close. SpaceX says launching 60 V3 Starlink satellites per Starship flight would be a potential twentyfold increase in downlink capacity over one Falcon 9, but its S-1 filing says that without full reusability, Starlink’s progress would be slower and more expensive, TechCrunch reported.

NASA is relying on a Starship variant as its Artemis lunar lander, with a first landing targeted for 2028 and up to about 15 tanker launches needed to refuel it, Spaceflight Now reported. The lander variant has not yet flown. A Government Accountability Office report released the day before the flight called cryogenic fuel management a top risk for the program and said SpaceX is more than a year behind schedule on key events, Spaceflight Now reported. Blue Origin is also building a lunar lander, the outlet added.

The sources differ on the booster’s fate: Spaceflight Now said it hit its target area but landed hard, while TechCrunch said it exploded after hitting the water. Both agree on the main result: a ship that returned intact and a booster that did not.