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Starship glowing with plasma during atmospheric re-entry
July 24 (Flight 13) · 2026

Starship Flight 13 — First Starlink V3 Deploy, Soft Splashdown Intact

Bridges developmental mass-simulators to operational constellation capacity: real Starlink V3 hardware, in-space engine relight, and heatshield survival data are the gates to high-cadence heavy-lift broadband and eventual lunar/Mars logistics. A ship catch would close the rapid-reuse loop for the upper stage. Flight 14's published plan, and the flight that flew on September 28, was an offshore splashdown for both stages.

Photo: Wikideas1 · CC0

Second flight of Starship and Super Heavy V3 from Pad 2 at Starbase (liftoff 5:51 p.m. CT). Super Heavy lit all 33 Raptor 3 engines; completed high-thrust boostback with all 33 for the first time on a V3 booster, then hard splashdown in the Gulf after a partial landing-burn relight. Ship completed full-duration ascent on six Raptors, successfully deployed all 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites (first Starship flight to deploy real V3 hardware), established RF and laser links with every satellite and downloaded telemetry, reignited a single Raptor in space, flew a dynamic banking entry mimicking future Starbase return, then executed flip + landing burn and soft splashdown intact in the Indian Ocean — first critical views of an intact heatshield post-splashdown. Elon Musk stated that, pending data review, the next flight would attempt a tower catch of the ship.

Source: spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-13 (July 24, 2026) + @SpaceX; @elonmusk (July 25, 2026)

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