Amazing Views From SpaceX's Starship Test Flight and Exciting Splashdown
SpaceX launched Starship's 13th flight test from Starbase in Texas on Friday.
It's the first launch since SpaceX's IPO (initial public offering) last month, which helped make SpaceX's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, a brief trillionaire. Later stock shifts changed that.
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This was the second flight of the Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicle, but it was the first to deploy the Starlink V3 satellites.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/RdieYIh6Fd
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2026
This is one heck of a cool picture:
Flight 13 passes by the MOON!!!
📸 - @NASASpaceflight
Coverage continues: https://t.co/PeQ5mSRVzx pic.twitter.com/k5RqxNMzVh
— Max Evans (@_MaxQ_) July 24, 2026
After the stage separation of the booster from the ship, they attempted to relight the engines for the landing burn of the booster. It wasn't perfect, with "a subset" successfully igniting before the booster had a hard splashdown in the Gulf.
Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of America! pic.twitter.com/lHdEznFpT4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2026
Starship reached its planned velocity and trajectory, then it successfully deployed all 20 of the Starlink satellites.
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Starship’s ascent burn is complete and is now coasting through space pic.twitter.com/SY2jGgfjl6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2026
Deployment of 20 @Starlink V3 satellites complete. Today's test will provide critical data as we prepare to expand our Starlink constellation pic.twitter.com/jWKLwXGlsk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2026
SpaceX said it was able to communicate with all the satellites and get telemetry information back from them.
Starship as seen from Starlink satellites pic.twitter.com/e2hvfmnewh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
You can see Starship executing a banking move to test what it will have to do when returning to Starbase.
Starship is executing a banking maneuver that mimics the final approach it would take when returning to Starbase for a catch on a future mission pic.twitter.com/ojjCGs79Ku
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2026
Starship then guided itself using its four flaps to the pre-planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean. After relighting all three Raptor engines, Starship executed a landing flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown, coming to rest intact in the Indian Ocean and providing critical views of an intact heatshield for the first time.
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
Starship is intact, floating in the ocean and transmitting telemetry! pic.twitter.com/hLVXJqkHSA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
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Here's a time-lapse of all the incredible visuals, in 150 seconds.
Time-lapse of today’s Starship flight, from liftoff to splashdown, in just 150 seconds. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/1jGFPK4CYV
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 25, 2026
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