SpaceX Starship 13th Flight Deploys 20 Starlink V3 Satellites; Booster Recovered, Ship Salvage Uncertain

SpaceX launched its Starship from Starbase in South Texas on July 25 for its 13th test flight. During the mission, the Ship upper stage, about 52 meters tall, splashed down in the Indian Ocean off Australia's west coast as planned, and remained structurally intact after being toppled by waves, the first time this has occurred in the test flight program. The vehicle is still afloat, and a SpaceX recovery team is towing it toward the Western Australian coast for more detailed inspection.

When fully assembled, Starship stands about 124 meters tall and consists of two stages, the Ship upper stage and the Super Heavy booster, both designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.

At SpaceX's first quarterly earnings call on August 4, Musk said heat shield issues had been largely resolved. The heat shield system, which protects the vehicle during reentry into the atmosphere, had previously been described by Musk as one of the biggest obstacles to Starship reaching operational status. Starship is a core pillar of several of SpaceX's future plans, including building and operating an AI satellite constellation in Earth orbit.

The 13th mission was a suborbital flight: the Super Heavy booster landed in the Gulf of Mexico and the Ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean. During the mission, the Ship upper stage successfully deployed 20 fully functional Starlink V3 satellites, the new-generation upgrade of SpaceX's broadband satellite fleet. SpaceX plans to eventually operate a constellation of approximately 100,000 Starlink V3 satellites, with launches to be carried out by Starship.