Starship’s 13th flight test (IFT-13) was an epic launch and landing event. SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) showed patience as the company took a whole week to assess and fix issues after last week’s abort in the first attempt.
‘Patience is a virtue.’ The quote was once again proven to be authentic in real life. SpaceX once again held the flight on Thursday, 23 July, because of low visibility at Starbase, Texas, although the flight could’ve been conducted technically.
On Friday, Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas, had a crystal clear atmosphere, the perfect weather to have clear visibility at Starship launch operations. Since this is a test flight, visuals are important for learning in addition to Starship data.
You can watch the live stream recordings and read the archived text updates of the objectives and milestones with the T- and T+ timelines from my live coverage of the Starship Flight 13 event here.
Starship’s Softest Splashdown Landing Yet
However, we’re not talking about the entire event in this update; we’re going to talk about the most interesting part: the end of the mission, the landing of the upper stage Starship 40.
At around T+1 hour, 5 mins, Flight 13 Starship upper stage (Ship 40) started its landing burn. The Ship successfully ignited 3 sea-level engines to slow down the spacecraft.
Interestingly, the sequence of engine shutdown worked perfectly afterwards. 3 > 2 > 1 > Splashdown. This was Starship’s softest vertical splashdown landing yet.
As a result of the soft water landing, almost the entire Starship 40 upper stage prototype remained intact. In previous flights, Starships would break down into pieces and drown.
Via the Starlink satellite cameras, SpaceX was able to get and show some spectacular views of the Starship floating on the surface of the ocean (near Australia). It looked stunning while floating as a huge ship on the ocean surface (video below).
The intact Starship will provide even better data for thermal resistance, as it’s now easy to inspect the heat shield tiles and other systems. Till the last reports, SpaceX recovery teams were headed towards Ship 40.
It remains to be seen if SpaceX brings Starship 40 back to the US for further study. It will also be a great addition to the Rocket Garden at Starbase, Texas.
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the 13th flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/g27YJCQgiN
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2026
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