SpaceX Starship V3 completes first intact splashdown in 13th test flight, deploys 20 Starlink satellites

Launch and booster recovery

SpaceX launched its Starship V3 system from Starbase in southern Texas at 00:51 CEST on 25 July. The 122-metre stack, comprising the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage, climbed through a clear night sky on the power of 33 Raptor engines. Booster separation occurred roughly two minutes into flight, and the first stage executed a controlled descent to the Gulf of Mexico. However, only five of the 13 engines planned for the final braking burn ignited, causing the Super Heavy to hit the water at a higher speed than intended. SpaceX acknowledged the harder touchdown but treated it as a minor deviation in an otherwise successful launch.

Upper stage milestones

Once free of the booster, the Starship spacecraft continued its suborbital arc. About 18 minutes after liftoff, it released 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites, a significant upgrade from the simulators flown on earlier missions. The vehicle also performed a brief in-space reignition of a Raptor engine, sustaining the burn for 14 seconds to demonstrate a deorbit capability essential for future orbital flights. The thermal protection system, reinforced after the previous V3 flight, held up through re-entry. Approximately 64 minutes into the mission, the ship splashed down gently in the Indian Ocean and remained intact, floating and sending back telemetry. SpaceX called it the softest water landing the vehicle had ever achieved and the first time a Starship survived the ocean impact fully operational.

Mission control reactions

Starship is intact, floating in the ocean and transmitting telemetry data!

SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot, during the live webcast, described the moment:

I'm losing my mind right now. It's a dream scenario. It's the first time we've been able to put an intact Starship into the water.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also praised the achievement on social media:

Congratulations on kicking off Flight 13. I'm excited about what we'll learn from this mission. When Starship comes online, its capabilities will change everything and ensure we never give up on the Moon again.

Next steps toward orbit and the Moon

The flight was the second outing for the V3 variant, which first flew in May 2026. That earlier test was cut short by multiple engine failures; this time the hardware and software upgrades worked largely as intended. SpaceX now plans to review the data and, pending no major anomalies, proceed to Flight 14, which would aim for a full Earth orbit. A subsequent goal is to catch both the booster and the ship at the Texas launch tower, a maneuver already demonstrated with the Super Heavy alone. The progress is closely watched by NASA, which intends to use a Starship as the lunar lander for the Artemis 3 mission, currently projected for 2027. The 13th test also came weeks after SpaceX completed a record-breaking IPO in June, a milestone that has increased public scrutiny of its aggressive launch cadence.

Environmental petition

As the Starship campaign accelerates, a fresh protest has landed at the Federal Communications Commission. Three organisations (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Earthjustice and DarkSky International) filed a petition seeking a halt to new licences for orbital data centres, arguing that the plans violate US environmental review law. The groups warn that the rapid growth of satellite constellations and their eventual re-entry burn-up could release soot, rare metals and aluminium oxides into the upper atmosphere, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the planet. The petition does not target the test flight directly but underscores the rising tension between space industrialisation and terrestrial environmental safeguards.