SpaceX hopes to capture the tower for the next spacecraft after the auspicious end of the 13th flight

SpaceX was more than lucky on Friday to send its 13th full-scale Starship test flight halfway around the world from south Texas to an intact, on-target splashdown in a remote section of the Indian Ocean.

Starship has made precise splashdowns before. This time, however, the ship listed gently and was left floating in a remote stretch of ocean west of Australia. Previous splashdowns have ended in conflagrations, an outcome SpaceX officials expect with every Starship water landing.

The buoyant Starship appeared to be in good condition after arriving in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX engineers flew drones over the vehicle to inspect its heat shield, getting the best look yet at how more than 18,000 ceramic tiles that insulated the ship’s stainless steel structure withstood the trip to space and back. The tiles withstood temperatures of up to 2,600° Fahrenheit (1,430° Celsius) when Starship returned to the atmosphere at the end of its hour-long flight from Starbase, Texas.

Buoyed by the perfect finish to Friday’s flight, SpaceX is likely to take the next leap with Starship on the next launch, according to company founder and CEO Elon Musk. That would involve launching Starship on a longer-range trajectory, perhaps into low-Earth orbit, to bring the vehicle back to the launch site. Mechanical arms on the launch tower will attempt to capture the ship as it decelerates to a hover. SpaceX has already done this with the rocket’s massive Super Heavy booster, which is larger and heavier than Starship itself, but returns at a fraction of the speed.

“Unless we discover problems after review of mission data, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on the next flight,” Musk wrote in X on Friday night.

Starship’s six Raptor engines float in the Indian Ocean.

Credit: SpaceX

Data hungry

Engineers have long identified heat shield performance and durability as one of the toughest challenges for the Starship program. SpaceX’s ambition for Starship includes fast delivery times and, eventually, multiple flights per day. For this to be possible, the heat shield must be resistant to the vibrations and extreme temperatures that occur during launch and reentry. It cannot be renewed or replaced after each flight.

“This is the first time we’ve put an intact spacecraft in the water,” said Dan Huot, communications manager for SpaceX, who provided comments on the company’s live webcast. “This is a dream scenario for the team that is trying to get this heat shield data.”

Friday’s intact landing also opens up the possibility of SpaceX towing the rocket back to shore, likely somewhere in Australia, for more detailed inspections. Starship is designed for reuse, but not after exposure to salt water.

“This is very important for refining the heat shield and everything else. The really good news is that… you’re looking at a heat shield that looks pretty intact,” Huot said. “We were flying at a significantly higher dynamic pressure, so putting a lot more stress on this vehicle on the way uphill, and it’s sitting there in the water.”

SpaceX continued to receive signals from Starship after landing via the company’s Starlink satellite broadband network. A camera aboard Starship showed no signs of external damage to the vehicle’s six Raptor engines as water hit the lens.

Friday’s test flight was the 13th launch of SpaceX’s Starship on its massive Super Heavy booster, and the second flight of the latest version of the world’s most powerful rocket: Starship Version 3.

Starship and its Super Heavy booster lifted off from the SpaceX launch site in South Texas at 5:51 p.m. CDT on July 24, 2026.

Credit: Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The 124-meter (408-foot) tall rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas, a few miles north of the US-Mexico border, at 5:51 p.m. CDT (6:51 p.m. EDT; 22:51 UTC). Thirty-three methane-fueled Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster steered the rocket east over the Gulf of Mexico and into the upper atmosphere, where the booster separated from Starship’s upper stage after burning through most of its cryogenic propellant.

The only thing left incomplete on SpaceX’s checklist for Flight 13 was the controlled landing of the Super Heavy booster. It was supposed to restart its engines for a landing off the Texas coast, simulating the maneuvers necessary to return the booster to the launch pad for recovery and reuse.

But some of the Raptor’s engines could not be restarted for landing and the booster fell into the ocean at high speed. SpaceX also had problems landing the booster on its last flight in May. Friday’s flight showed some progress, but engineers have more work to do to recover this version of the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX previously recovered and re-flown Super Heavy boosters twice with the Starship Version 2 design, but not with Version 3.

“The booster successfully completed the high-thrust portion of the booster burn with all 33 engines, a first with a Super Heavy V3, before ending the burn early,” SpaceX officials wrote in a update on company website. “It attempted to restart its engines for landing, and a subset ignited successfully before experiencing a heavy splashdown in the Gulf.”

Success in space

Starship continued to accelerate into space as the Super Heavy booster descended toward the Gulf, igniting its six engines for more than five minutes before beginning a half-hour coast over the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and South Africa.

A few minutes after shutting down the engine, Starship opened the door to its payload bay and began deploying a stack of 20 Starlink satellites. The satellites are the first of SpaceX’s updated Starlink V3 model, with significant improvements in performance and power. They are also larger and heavier than the Starlink V2s, meaning they won’t fit on SpaceX’s smaller, more powerful Falcon 9 rocket.

Starship launched the Starlink V3s using its Fish-type deployant, throwing them overboard through a slit-shaped opening in the side of the spacecraft. Flat-screen satellites did not stay in space for long. They flew on the same arcing suborbital trajectory as Starship and were designed to burn up when they fell back into the atmosphere less than an hour after launch.

Before long, SpaceX ground teams established contact with each of the satellites via radio and laser communication links, and “downloaded key telemetry” before their fiery demise. This gave engineers a first look at the Starlink V3’s performance in space.

Powered by six Raptor engines, Starship is seen accelerating into space on Friday in this view captured by a camera on the Super Heavy booster moments after stage separation.

Credit: SpaceX

With deployment of the satellites complete, attention turned to a brief restart of one of the ship’s Raptor engines, something engineers gave up on the final flight. The burn lasted approximately 14 seconds and was visible to observers in South Africa. SpaceX hailed the demonstration as a “core capability for future orbital missions.” Gravity then pulled Starship back to Earth.

The next steps for Starship are to launch into orbit and return the ship to the launch site. Those achievements will give SpaceX the ability to begin launching operational Starlink V3 satellites, unlocking higher-speed direct-to-device connectivity for consumers and the U.S. military, and the revenue that goes with it.

For NASA, an orbital flight puts SpaceX on the path to orbital refueling. This demonstration is vital for any Starship flights beyond low Earth orbit, including missions to the Moon in support of NASA’s Artemis program. NASA is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop human-friendly versions of Starship and the Blue Moon lander to transport astronauts to and from the lunar surface.