Starship Flight 13 sticks it: full Starlink V3 batch deployed, both stages splash down intact

SpaceX flew Starship Flight 13 successfully on July 24 — the second flight of the most powerful V3 configuration, after the V3 debut (Flight 12) in May was called a success despite a missed booster splashdown. This time the vehicle deployed all 20 Starlink V3 satellites (the last two carried lights and cameras to observe the ship in orbital darkness), coasted, relit one of its six Raptor engines in space as a maneuvering test, and brought both stages home under control: the Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf, the ship in the Indian Ocean. Full orbital flight, tower catches and reflight are still ahead.

Why it matters

This is the flight that turns V3 from "flew once" into "works end to end." A full operational Starlink V3 batch — not mock-ups — plus a controlled booster splashdown and an in-space relight are the specific boxes Flight 12 left unchecked, and clearing them is what the Starship V3 debut milestone was building toward. The competitive read matters too: it lands two weeks after China's first orbital booster recovery and amid Relativity's NASA-backed Mars challenge — SpaceX answering "can anyone else do this at rate?" with a clean second V3 flight. The gap that remains is the hard one: splashdowns aren't catches, and reuse — not just recovery — is the economic prize.

What to watch

The first V3 tower catch and the move from splashdown to reflight, the Starlink V3 deployment cadence now that the full batch works, and whether Flight 14 attempts an orbital-class profile.