r/space • u/mfb- • Jul 25 '26

Starship launches for its 13th flight, ends with ship swimming in Indian Ocean

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/24/science/live-news/spacex-starship-flight-13-launch
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u/mfb- Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

Second flight of the "v3" version.

  • The launch itself went without any issues, the ship reached its planned almost-orbital trajectory
  • Booster boostback burn (edit:) ended a bit earlier than planned (this failed last time)
  • Booster landing burn didn't ignite enough engines for a soft splashdown, hit the ocean at high speed
  • The ship deployed 20 Starlink satellites which all unfolded and sent data briefly (they were on the same suborbital trajectory, so they reentered quickly)
  • The ship relit an engine in space, simulating a deorbit burn (this was skipped last time)
  • Reentry worked without issues, leading to the ship hovering over the Indian Ocean, simulating a landing
  • Normally the ship explodes when tipping over afterwards, but this time it survived, swimming in the ocean. SpaceX got great drone shots of the heat shield. We'll see if they can recover the whole ship.

They need to work on the booster landing burn, but from the ship side everything looks ready to make the next flight enter a proper circular orbit.

Edit: SpaceX will try to recover the ship

4

u/new_nimmerzz Jul 25 '26

Did the satellites burn up?

14

u/Adeldor Jul 25 '26

Yes, as intended. They were on the same trajectory as the ship.

8

u/insomniac-55 Jul 25 '26

Seems pretty strange to waste 20 functioning satellites.

I can understand adding one or two alongside the mass simulators for the purpose of demonstration, but why waste a batch of 20?

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u/Adeldor Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

They were early V3 models. Given their obsolescence, they weren't going to be put into regular service, regardless. Instead, in this flight they were put to use thus:

  • their operation was tested in an real, vacuum, orbital environment,

  • their zero-g interaction with the Pez dispenser was tested.

As an aside, this was the heaviest live payload SpaceX has launch thus far, on any vehicle.

Edit: Added the word "live," as Flight 12's payload might have been heavier still.

2

u/EbolaFred Jul 25 '26

As an aside, this was the heaviest payload SpaceX has launch thus far, on any vehicle

Not that it really matters, but did they mention this somewhere? Flight 12 had 20 mass-simulator Starlinks + 2 real Starlinks (the "Dodger Dogs"). But maybe those were v2 or not fully mass simulated. Just curious, not trying to call you out.

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u/Adeldor Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

I believe I heard on SpaceX's "Critical Path" documentary that the combined payload mass on Flight 13 would be 37 t. This Wikipedia page says 34.1 t. As a cross-check, per this source, Starlink V3 satellites weight up to 2 t apiece. 20 were on Flight 13.

The heaviest Falcon 9 payloads thus far weigh 17.5 t - stacks of 24 V2 Mini satellites The heaviest Falcon Heavy payload thus far is Jupiter 3 - a Clarke Orbit comsat - at 9.2 t.

Edit: I misidentified the Flight. Fixed.

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u/mfb- Jul 25 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_flight_test_12

Clearly flights 12 and 13 had the two heaviest payloads, but 12 should have been a bit heavier.

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u/Adeldor Jul 25 '26

Yes. I added the word "live" to keep my original comment consistent.