SpaceX launches massive Starship rocket in first test flight since IPO
The SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy v3 Booster carry off on its thirteenth test flight from the SpaceX launch complicated in Starbase, Texas, US, July 24, 2026.
Steve Nesius | Reuters
SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket Friday night from its firm city and launch facility in Starbase, Texas, in a thirteenth test flight and the first since the corporate’s file IPO final month.
The rocket’s Super Heavy booster indifferent from the Starship spacecraft about two minutes into the flight, and made a managed splashdown in the Gulf.
In a statements Following the flight, SpaceX stated the touchdown was not good because the booster, “attempted to relight its engines for the landing burn,” however solely a subset efficiently ignited earlier than the “hard splashdown.”
The higher stage of the rocket made a “soft splashdown” in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX stated, “coming to rest intact in the Indian Ocean and providing critical views of an intact heatshield for the first time.”
Employees referred to as the test flight “lucky number 13,” in a livestream of the occasion.
Elon Musk’s aerospace and protection contractor designed Starship, the biggest rocket ever constructed or flown, to be absolutely reusable and to carry extra cargo for much less value into orbit. Starship is taken into account essential for the corporate’s purpose to vastly develop its Starlink satellite tv for pc community, amongst different missions.
About 18 minutes into Friday’s test flight, SpaceX efficiently deployed 20 of its new Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, a first probability for the corporate to see how they carried out in flight. The satellites had been supposed to expend after about 20 minutes.
The new satellites, produced at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington, are constructed to be bigger, and extra highly effective than Starlink’s earlier satellites. They’re additionally geared up with photo voltaic arrays that generate twice as a lot energy as prior generations, a SpaceX enterprise analyst defined in a livestream.
SpaceX is now creating Starmind satellites, which the corporate intends to launch and ultimately use as orbital knowledge facilities.
Besides utilizing their largest rockets to launch the brand new, bigger satellites, SpaceX desires to make use of the Starship rocket to carry US astronauts again to the moon’s floor, and to ultimately energy manned missions to Mars. The firm is getting ready Starship for a significant NASA test flight subsequent 12 months.
Friday’s test flight marked the second for Starship V3, the newest model of the rocket.
TMF Associates’ Tim Farrar, a satellite tv for pc providers business skilled, stated the test flight confirmed SpaceX has made some progress with Starship however “remains a long way from achieving rapid reusability of the entire ship.” He pointed to issues SpaceX had relighting its Raptor engines on Friday. “Any similar failure during an attempted landing at the company’s launch site could cause severe damage to the launchpad,” he stated.
In a submit on X, which is owned by SpaceX, the company said it delayed an earlier test flight deliberate for Thursday “due to weather.” It additionally beforehand scrubbed a test flight on July 16, after the rocket’s booster triggered a maintain, which “shut down the engines right as they were starting to ignite,” a SpaceX worker stated throughout a livestream of the sooner occasion.
SpaceX’s inventory has dropped in 4 of the previous 5 weeks, slumping 43% from its peak shut on June 16.
