2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,430 degrees Celsius) is the reentry temperature SpaceX's more than 18,000 ceramic heat-shield tiles withstood on Flight 13, the July 24 Starship test that ended with the world's largest rocket floating intact in a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean west of Australia. The 408-foot (124-meter) vehicle lifted off from Starbase, Texas at 5:51 pm CDT, completed an hour-long flight, and survived splashdown without breaking apart, a first for the program. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the next launch will attempt a mechanical tower catch of the ship, barring problems found during mission data review.
Heat shield data, at last
SpaceX engineers flew drones over the floating vehicle to inspect the tile array, getting their clearest look yet at how the heat shield weathers a full flight profile. Tile durability is the program's known chokepoint: SpaceX wants multiple Starship flights per day, and that cadence collapses if tiles require refurbishment or replacement after each mission. "This is the first time we've put an intact Starship in the water," said Dan Huot, SpaceX communications manager. "This is a dream scenario for the team that's trying to get this heat shield data." The intact vehicle also opens the possibility of towing it to shore, likely somewhere in Australia, for closer inspection. Starship is not designed for sustained salt water exposure, so retrieval timing will matter.
Starlink V3: first data from space
Flight 13 carried 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first of SpaceX's next-generation broadband hardware. The V3 model is larger and heavier than its predecessor and does not fit on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, making Starship the only viable launch vehicle for them. The batch flew a suborbital arc and burned up less than an hour after launch. Before reentry, SpaceX ground teams established radio and laser contact with each satellite and downloaded key telemetry, giving engineers their first V3 performance data. Starlink V3 supports higher-speed direct-to-device service for consumers and the US military.
The booster gap
Super Heavy did not make it back. The V3 booster completed its boostback burn on all 33 Raptor engines, the first time that milestone was cleared on a V3 vehicle, before ending the burn early. The engines then failed to restart cleanly for the landing burn, and the booster hit the Gulf of Mexico at high speed. SpaceX encountered the same failure on its previous flight in May. The company recovered and re-flew Super Heavy boosters twice with the V2 design; it has not yet done so with V3.
What comes next
Musk's stated plan for Flight 14 is a longer trajectory into low-Earth orbit, a return to Starbase, and a tower catch of the ship using mechanical arms. SpaceX has already caught the Super Heavy booster this way; Starship arrives at greater speed, making the catch more demanding. A successful orbital flight also sets up the two-launch refueling demonstration NASA needs for Artemis lunar missions: two Starships rendezvous in orbit and transfer methane and liquid oxygen through automated couplers, with multiple runs needed to fully fuel a Moon-bound vehicle. SpaceX currently operates one active Starship launch pad in Texas, with a second undergoing renovations there and two more under construction at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.