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Jul 28, 2026
by EVSocial Media

SpaceX Flight 13 Shows Starship in Space After Major Test Milestones

Jul 28, 2026
by EVSocial Media

SpaceX has released a new view of Starship in space during Flight 13, showing the stainless-steel upper stage above Earth after its July 24 launch from Starbase, Texas. The image is striking, but the mission's real value lies in the sequence around it: payload deployment, an engine relight in space, reentry data and an unusually gentle Indian Ocean splashdown.

"Starship in space on Flight 13."

Why it matters

Flight 13 connected Starship development directly to SpaceX's largest operating business. The ship released 20 next-generation Starlink V3 test satellites, the first time Starship had deployed this newer hardware on a flight. The satellites were part of the test profile rather than an operational constellation deployment, but the event demonstrated the mechanics of carrying and releasing the larger payloads Starship is meant to handle.

The ship also relit a Raptor engine after reaching space. That capability is essential for future orbital work because a useful spacecraft must be able to change its trajectory, deorbit and eventually support more complex missions. Reaching the expected path is only one step; controlled propulsion after ascent makes the vehicle operationally flexible.

A soft splashdown produced better reuse data

After collecting heat-shield and aerodynamic data through reentry, Starship performed its landing flip and burn, reached the Indian Ocean and remained intact and floating while cameras continued to transmit. An ocean landing does not make the vehicle reusable, and salt water is not a substitute for returning to a tower. Still, an intact ship gives engineers more evidence about tiles, flaps, structure and propulsion than a vehicle that breaks up before the end of the test.

The upper stage's success should not hide the booster result. Super Heavy completed ascent and stage separation, then began its return. Reports from the flight indicate that the boostback burn ended early and the offshore landing was harder than planned. Starship is a two-stage recovery system; clean ship data and an unfinished booster return can both be true.

That mixed result is typical of development testing. Each flight tries to close several separate questions: engine startup, stage separation, payload handling, in-space propulsion, thermal protection, guidance and landing control. A mission can advance four of those areas while exposing a problem in a fifth.

The wording around the mission also deserves care. Starship reached space and followed its planned suborbital test trajectory, but Flight 13 was not an operational orbital delivery mission. The distinction does not diminish the engineering work. It clarifies what was demonstrated: controlled flight through space, payload release and an engine relight before a planned return, rather than placing a commercial payload into a lasting orbit.

What comes next

The mission now enters the less visible stage of data review. SpaceX must compare telemetry with imagery, inspect heat-shield behavior and determine why the booster return did not finish as planned. Elon Musk suggested that a future flight could attempt to catch the ship with the launch tower if the review finds no major obstacles, but that remains conditional.

Flight 13 therefore deserves neither a flawless-success label nor a failure label. It showed a Starship upper stage completing a substantial chain of objectives and returning softly enough to stay intact. The new image captures the moment, while the payload release, engine relight and reentry performance explain why the moment matters. The next milestone is repeatability: performing the same sequence while bringing both stages back in a condition that supports rapid reuse.