SpaceX launches Starship on 13th test flight with most advanced Starlink satellites

Location: Cape Canaveral Source: AP

Photo Credit: Reuters

Towering 407 feet (124 metres), Starship soared from SpaceX's base at the southern tip of Texas. NASA monitored the flight, which is a critical step toward using Starship as a lunar lander for moon crews.

Elon Musk's SpaceX replaced six of the 33 engines on the first-stage booster after they failed to ignite last week, resulting in a last-second launch abort. The previous Starship flight in May also experienced engine trouble, which prevented the booster from making a controlled return.

Flight Details

• Flight number: 13th test flight of the world's biggest and most powerful rocket
• Vehicle version: Second flight this year of the new V3 variant
• Altitude reached: Up to 125 miles (200 kilometres)
• Booster destination: Gulf of Mexico
• Spacecraft destination: Indian Ocean, more than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres) from launch site
• Flight duration: Approximately one hour

Neither the booster nor the spacecraft was recovered; both were ditched into the sea.

Starlink Mission

The Starlink satellites had a job to do before reentering over the Indian Ocean, with an expected solo-flying time of no more than 20 minutes.

Once deployed from Starship's Pez-like dispenser, the Starlinks were to:

• Extend their solar wings and antennas
• Attempt to communicate via lasers with older Starlink models already in orbit

With more than 10,000 Starlinks currently providing internet, SpaceX boasts the world's largest satellite constellation.

Heat Shield Experiments

Six of the newly launched Starlinks carried cameras to photograph Starship's heat shield. The heat shield was also equipped with sensors to measure the extreme pressure placed on the spacecraft during launch.

Most of the heat shield's thermal tiles were black, but some were deliberately painted white to simulate missing tiles — part of an experiment to test the shield's robustness.

SpaceX wants to ensure Starship's heat shield can withstand the heat of entry before attempting to return it to the Starbase launch pad near the Texas-Mexico border. The company has already used a pair of giant mechanical arms at the pad to capture a Starship booster and plans to do the same with the actual spacecraft, which is designed to be totally reusable.

Future Missions

NASA needs Starship to wrap up testing and reach orbit soon so the Artemis III astronauts — three Americans and one Italian — can practice docking their capsule with it next year.

Starship is also the vehicle with which Musk intends to build a city on Mars. He is already booking tourist trips to Mars, as well as the moon.

Launch Delays

The latest test flight was delayed first by the July 16 launch abort, then again on Thursday (July 24, 2026) by thick clouds from Tropical Storm Bertha.

Published - July 25, 2026 05:40 am IST