Starship IFT-13 Flies Successfully — First Operational Starlink Deployment, but Booster 20 Lost on Splashdown

After the July 16 T-0 abort and a further weather scrub, Starship's 13th integrated flight test launched successfully from Starbase on July 24, 2026, becoming the first Starship mission to deploy operational satellites: 20 V3 Starlink satellites (six carrying cameras) separated from Ship 40's payload bay in suborbit and established contact with ground stations. Ship 40 relit all three of its Raptor engines for a landing burn and executed a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, remaining intact and floating afterward — a first for the vehicle — which let SpaceX get its first close-up drone views of an intact heat shield and engines post-flight, despite the ship tipping onto its side. Super Heavy Booster 20 was lost during its own splashdown attempt in the Gulf of Mexico: only 10 of its 13 landing-burn engines relit, and 5 of those shut down seconds later, producing a harder-than-planned impact that destroyed the booster. SpaceX called the flight's satellite deployment and heat-shield data its most important results since IFT-12.