SpaceX completed the 13th integrated test flight of its Starship launch system from Starbase, Texas, United States, on 24 July 2026, in what was only the second flight of the new Starship Version 3 (V3). The mission achieved the first-ever deployment of 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites and ended with a controlled splashdown of the Starship upper stage in the Indian Ocean. NASA closely monitored the test to assess whether the vehicle is ready to support its future Artemis lunar missions.
The 13th Integrated Flight: What Happened
The stacked vehicle, built from the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the Ship upper stage, lifted off from Starbase at 5:51 p.m. Central Time on 24 July. The flight was not easy to get off the ground. A first launch attempt on 16 July was scrubbed at the final moment when several booster engines did not ignite as planned, and a second attempt on 23 July was waved off due to bad weather. SpaceX replaced the affected Raptor engines and tried again on 24 July, when all 33 booster engines lit successfully.
Minutes after launch, the Ship upper stage separated from the Super Heavy booster, which had to perform a tricky flip manoeuvre and a return burn before splashing down in the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico). The booster’s return went only partly to plan: fewer engines than expected ignited for the final landing burn, so it hit the water harder than intended. The upper stage, by contrast, executed nearly the entire mission profile cleanly.
In space, Starship opened a narrow slot in its payload bay and released all 20 Starlink V3 satellites one by one. It then relit a single Raptor engine in space for about 14 seconds, a crucial test of the ability to restart engines that Starship will need to change orbit and eventually travel to the Moon. About an hour after launch, the vehicle re-entered the atmosphere, flipped to a vertical position and made a soft, controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, floating intact on the water. SpaceX described it as the softest Starship splashdown so far.
Starship V3: A New-Look Rocket
Starship is the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, standing roughly 124 metres (407 feet) tall with a diameter of 9 metres. It is designed to be fully reusable, meaning both the booster and the upper stage are meant to be flown again and again, in the same way an aeroplane is. The system is central to SpaceX’s goal of reducing the cost of access to space dramatically, with the company intending to use it to carry cargo and people to Earth orbit, the Moon and eventually Mars.
The first fully stacked Starship ever flew in April 2023. That debut ended in an explosion minutes after liftoff, but it marked the start of a test programme that has since progressed through a dozen more suborbital flights, each one refining the design. This year, the programme reached a major milestone with the introduction of Version 3 (V3), which first flew in May 2026 on the 12th integrated test flight.
The V3 hardware is a substantial upgrade over its predecessors. Both stages now use the new Raptor 3 engine, a more powerful and simplified engine than earlier versions. The Super Heavy booster carries 33 Raptor 3 engines, generating a combined liftoff thrust of roughly 8,000 tonnes (about 18 million pounds). The upper stage uses 6 Raptor engines, three for sea level and three optimised for the vacuum of space. The V3 Super Heavy also swaps its four earlier grid fins for three larger ones and features a redesigned propellant feed system intended to let all engines ignite reliably at once.
A key test-related objective on Flight 13 was the heat shield. Six of the 20 satellites carried cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from outside during the flight, and the vehicle carried experimental tiles, including load-sensing tiles, to gather data on how the thermal protection system withstands the extreme heat of re-entry. Engineers painted several tiles white to simulate missing ones, giving the satellite cameras visible targets. This data will help SpaceX decide when the upper stage can be recovered back at the launch pad rather than in the ocean.
Starlink V3: The Satellites Starship Was Built For
Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite internet network, a constellation of thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit that beam broadband internet to users on the ground. It already operates the largest satellite fleet ever assembled, with roughly 10,800 active satellites in orbit serving millions of customers across the globe. The network has been built up using the Falcon 9 rocket, launching batches of dozens of satellites at a time.
Starlink V3 is the next generation of these satellites, designed to dramatically expand the network’s capacity and connection speeds. Each V3 satellite weighs about 2,000 kilograms, more than double the mass of earlier versions, and carries larger solar arrays, a high-capacity laser inter-satellite link and significantly more powerful antennas. One V3 satellite is expected to provide around 10 times the downlink capacity of its predecessors. Because the satellites are so large, they can only be launched economically by Starship, which is designed to carry dozens at a time through its slot-like payload bay door.
Flight 13 was a first step in proving this system works. The 20 satellites deployed on the mission were fully functional, not dummy payloads, although they were not meant to reach orbit. On a suborbital trajectory, they extended their solar arrays and antennas, made contact with ground stations and attempted to link to the existing Starlink constellation using their laser communication systems. All 20 made contact successfully, and roughly 20 minutes after deployment they re-entered the atmosphere and burned up as planned, since they were never meant to enter a stable orbit.
This was a proof-of-concept for the deployment system rather than an operational delivery. The plan is for Starship to eventually carry 60 Starlink V3 satellites on each operational mission, rapidly refreshing and expanding the constellation. SpaceX sees this as the engine that pays for the entire Starship programme, since the V3 satellites cannot be launched in large numbers by any other rocket.
Analogy · Dispensing Satellites Like Candy Expand analogy
Starship deploys satellites through a narrow slot in its body in the same way a PEZ candy dispenser pushes sweets out one at a time. This lets a single rocket carry dozens of large satellites packed tightly in a row, an arrangement far cheaper than launching them one by one on smaller rockets.
Why NASA Is Watching: Starship and the Artemis Programme
Artemis is NASA’s programme to return humans to the Moon, named after the twin sister of Apollo and the Greek goddess of the Moon and the hunt. The programme represents humanity’s first crewed return to the lunar surface since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, with the ambition of establishing a long-term, sustainable human presence on and around the Moon. NASA has broken the programme into numbered missions: Artemis I was an uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, and Artemis II flew four astronauts around the Moon in April 2026. Artemis III is expected to test crewed lunar landing systems in the 2027-2028 timeframe, and Artemis IV is targeted for a crewed landing in 2028.
Starship is central to these plans. NASA selected SpaceX to develop a Human Landing System (HLS) based on Starship, a modified version of the vehicle that will carry astronauts from lunar orbit down to the Moon’s surface. The lander will require Starship to reach Earth orbit, receive fuel through in-orbit refuelling by other Starships acting as tankers, and then fly to the Moon. This is why the milestones being tested on flights like the 13th are so significant: in-space engine relight, heat shield survival through re-entry and precision splashdown are all steps toward the reusable, refuellable system the Moon missions demand.
A notable complication is that Starship has not yet completed a full orbit of the Earth. Every flight so far has been suborbital, reaching space but not circling the planet. Before it can serve as a lunar lander, Starship must demonstrate orbital flight, in-orbit refuelling and a safe return to the launch site. NASA has also contracted with Blue Origin, whose Blue Moon lander is the second human landing system under development, giving the programme two competing suppliers. The Artemis III mission is expected to test rendezvous and docking between Orion, Starship and Blue Moon in low Earth orbit before any lunar landing is attempted.
What This Flight Means for Reusability
The 13th flight showed clear progress toward Starship’s ultimate goal of rapid reusability. The upper stage’s clean run through the full flight sequence, from launch to in-space engine relight to a soft ocean landing intact, was the standout result. Previous Starships typically tipped over and exploded after splashdown, so keeping the vehicle whole on the water gives engineers the external and internal data they need to understand how the heat shield and structure perform.
The mission also set up the next big challenge. Elon Musk has said SpaceX will attempt to catch the Ship upper stage with the launch tower on the next flight, using the mechanical arms, nicknamed Mechazilla, that grip the vehicle as it descends. SpaceX has already used these arms to catch returning Super Heavy boosters three times, but catching the upper stage is far harder because it must first survive re-entry from much higher speed. The company has also said it aims to move from suborbital tests to an orbital flight later in 2026, which would allow Starlink V3 satellites to be delivered to operational orbits for the first time.
The Flight 13 results are a reminder of both the promise and the difficulty of the project. While the upper stage excelled, the booster’s hard splashdown, the second in a row for the V3 version, shows that engine relight reliability on the first stage remains unsolved. Each test flight is one step in an iterative process where hardware is changed and flown again, often quickly, a working style that has defined SpaceX’s approach to rocket development. For NASA, the progress is encouraging, but several major capabilities, orbital flight, refuelling in space and a crew-rated lander, must still be demonstrated before Starship can carry astronauts to the Moon.
Key Takeaways
- SpaceX completed the 13th integrated test flight of Starship from Starbase, Texas on 24 July 2026, the second flight of the Starship V3 version.
- The mission deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites for the first time, each weighing about 2,000 kilograms and offering roughly 10 times the downlink capacity of earlier satellites.
- The Super Heavy booster carries 33 Raptor 3 engines with a combined liftoff thrust of about 8,000 tonnes; the stacked vehicle stands 124 metres tall.
- The upper stage completed an in-space Raptor engine relight of about 14 seconds and made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, remaining intact.
- NASA is monitoring the programme because a modified Starship serves as the Human Landing System (HLS) for the Artemis lunar missions, with Artemis IV targeted for a crewed Moon landing in 2028.
- Starship has not yet flown a full orbit of the Earth; all 13 flights so far have been suborbital.
