SpaceX Flight 13 Starship Rocket Launch

SpaceX launched its Starship Flight 13 test mission from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, on July 24, 2026, marking the 13th test flight of the two-stage Starship vehicle and the second flight of the Starship V3 configuration. The mission deployed 20 V3 Starlink satellites and completed a nominal boost phase, but recovery efforts for Super Heavy Booster 20 failed after the booster carried out its boostback burn and then splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at higher speed than planned when not all landing-burn engines ignited.

"Excitement guaranteed," read one of the event stream banners ahead of liftoff, reflecting the mix of ambition and risk on show as Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—commonly known as SpaceX—pursues full reusability for the world's most powerful rocket.

Flight 13 was designed as a comprehensive test of Starship's capabilities. The rocket carried 20 V3 Starlink satellites that will extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to link with ground stations in South Africa and the broader Starlink constellation using high-capacity lasers. Six of those satellites were specially modified with suites of cameras to scan Starship's heat shield and relay imagery to operators, while several tiles on Starship were painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets for heat-shield analysis.

Mission hardware details identify the first-stage booster as Booster 20, a Second Block 3 Super Heavy booster equipped with Raptor 3 engines, an integrated interstage and three grid fins (rather than the four used previously). The booster completed a nominal boostback burn but "performed its landing burn with fewer engines than planned," the mission record states. As a result, Booster 20 was lost at splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico; there was no recovery attempt listed and the booster entered the ocean at higher velocities than those targeted for a soft splashdown.

Timeline and key events

• Launch date and time: July 24, 2026 (Flight timeline posted for a 10:51 PM UTC status)
• Vehicle: Starship two-stage system, Starship V3 orbital stage
• Booster: Booster 20, Second Block 3 Super Heavy
• Payload: 20 V3 Starlink satellites (6 camera-equipped for heat-shield imaging)
• Launch site: Orbital Launch Pad 2, SpaceX Starbase, Texas
• Failure mode: Partial landing-burn engine ignition; splashdown in Gulf of Mexico; booster lost

The mission timeline published for Flight 13 included standard staging events—MECO at T+00:02:18, stage separation shortly thereafter and a planned landing-burn sequence for the booster around T+00:06:27—while the Starship orbital stage carried on with planned burns and payload deployment later in the flight. The flight manifests also show longer-duration tests for atmospheric entry, transonic and subsonic regimes and multiple planned engine cutoff and restart events for the upper stage.

SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk and headquartered in Hawthorne, California, continues to iterate on Starship at its Starbase complex near Brownsville, Texas—a production and launch site that combines manufacturing, pad operations and flight testing. Flight 13 expands on previous tests by integrating Starlink payloads and in-flight heat-shield assessment techniques that SpaceX will use to refine procedures for future return-to-launch-site operations and eventual crewed and cargo missions to orbit, the Moon and beyond.

Looking ahead, engineers will analyze telemetry and imagery from the six camera-equipped satellites and from vehicle sensors to determine root causes for the landing-burn shortfall on Booster 20. Those findings will inform hardware and software changes for subsequent flights as SpaceX pushes toward routine booster recovery and full reusability of the Starship system.