SpaceX eyes the platform for the next Starship after the completion of the 13th flight

SpaceX was lucky on Friday, sending its 13th Starship test flight to the center of the world from South Texas to the target, completely spread over the remote Indian Ocean.

Starship has done splashdowns before. However, at this point the ship tilted slowly and came to rest in a remote part of the ocean west of Australia. Previous blasts have ended with threats, which SpaceX officials expect with every Starship landing.

The sleek starship was a sight to behold as it landed in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX engineers flew drones above the vehicle to inspect its heat shield, and get a good look at how the more than 18,000 ceramic tiles covering the ship’s stainless steel shield prevented it from traveling to space and back. The tiles withstood temperatures of up to 2,600° Fahrenheit (1,430° Celsius) when the Starship returned to space at the end of its one-hour journey from Starbase, Texas.

Buoyed by the successful completion of Friday’s flight, SpaceX is set to jump again with Starship on its next launch, according to the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk. This would involve launching the Starship on a long trajectory, possibly in low Earth orbit, to return the vehicle to the launch site. Mechanical arms on the launch platform will attempt to grab the ship as it slows down. SpaceX has already done this with the rocket’s Super Heavy booster, which is bigger and heavier than the Starship itself, but it returns slowly.

“Unless we find problems after reviewing the data, SpaceX will try to mount the spacecraft and platform on the next flight,” Musk wrote on X Friday evening.

The 6 engine Starship Raptor floats in the Indian Ocean. Credit: SpaceX

Hungry for data

Engineers have long identified the performance and durability of the heat shield as one of the biggest challenges of the Starship program. SpaceX’s ambitions for Starship include rapid turnaround, and eventually multiple flights per day. To achieve this, the thermal protection must be strong against the shocks and high temperatures seen during activation and re-entry. It cannot be repaired or replaced after each flight.

“This is the first time we’ve put a Starship in the water,” said Dan Huot, SpaceX’s communications director who provides commentary for the company’s webcast. “This is a dream come true for a team trying to get data on heat protection.”

Friday’s static blast also opens the door for SpaceX to pull the rocket ashore, possibly somewhere in Australia, for a more detailed inspection. The Starship was designed to be reused, but not after exposure to salt water.

“This is very important for cleaning the heat shield and everything else. The best news is … you’re looking at a good looking heat shield,” Huot said. “We were flying at high speed, so we were giving the car a lot of trouble on the way up, and it was sitting in the water.”

SpaceX continued to receive signals from the Starship after it was transmitted through the company’s Starlink satellite broadband network. The camera on board the Starship showed no signs of damage to the exterior of the Raptor’s six engines as water splashed onto the lens.

Friday’s launch was the 13th launch of SpaceX’s Starship atop its Super Heavy booster, and the second flight of the world’s most powerful rocket – Starship Version 3.

The Starship and its Super Heavy booster lifted off from the SpaceX launch pad in South Texas at 5:51 pm CDT on July 24, 2026. Credit: Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The 408-foot-tall (124-meter) rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas, a few miles north of the US-Mexico border, at 5:51 pm CDT (6:51 pm EDT; 22:51 UTC). Thirty-three methane-fueled Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster steered the rocket eastward over the Gulf of Mexico and toward land, where the booster separated from the Starship’s landmass after burning through its massive booster.

The only thing left incomplete in SpaceX’s Flight 13 lineup was the launch of the Super Heavy booster. It had to re-ignite its engines to burn off the coast of Texas, following procedures that required returning thrust to the launch pad for recovery and reuse.

But some of the Raptor’s engines failed to restart for ignition, and the booster fell into the sea very quickly. SpaceX also had trouble with an explosion on its last flight in May. Friday’s mission showed progress, but engineers have a lot of work to do to restore this version of the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX has recovered in the past and flown two Super Heavy boosters with the Starship Version 2 design, but not with Version 3.

“The booster completed a high burn mission with all 33 engines, first with the Super Heavy V3, before prematurely burning out,” SpaceX officials wrote. change it on the company’s website. “It tried to re-ignite its engines for refueling, and lit up a nice little section before it hit a heavy blast in the Gulf.”

Success in space

The star continued to rise in the sky as the Super Heavy booster descended into the Gulf, firing its six engines more than five minutes before beginning a half-hour coast over the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and South Africa.

Minutes after the engine shut down, the Starship opened its payload bay and began launching 20 Starlink satellites. The satellites are the first of SpaceX’s upgraded version of Starlink V3, which has significant improvements in performance and power. They are also larger and heavier than Starlink V2s, meaning they won’t fit on SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rocket.

The Starship released the Starlink V3s using its Pez-like launcher, and dropped them into the water through the opening as part of the spaceship. Underground satellites have not been in space for long. They flew on a similar arcing suborbital trajectory as Starship, and were designed to burn up as they fell into space less than an hour after launch.

Soon after, SpaceX’s ground teams contacted each satellite via radio and lasers, and “downloaded telemetry keys” before they were destroyed. This gave engineers a first look at the performance of the Starlink V3s in space.

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

After the satellites were deployed, interest began to briefly rekindle the ship’s Raptor engine, which experts predicted would be the last mission. The burn took about 14 seconds, and that was it visible to viewers in South Africa. SpaceX hailed the demonstration as “important for future orbital missions.” Gravity pulled the Stars back to Earth.

The next steps of the Starship begin to rotate and return the ship to the launch pad. This will give SpaceX the ability to launch Starlink V3 satellites, and open up direct communications with the equipment to consumers and the US military, and the money that goes with it.

For NASA, the orbiter puts SpaceX on the path to orbital refueling. This display is essential for every Starship flight 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-approved versions of the Starship and Blue Moon lander to ferry astronauts to and from the surface.