SpaceX's 13th Starship test flight ended Friday with an intact splashdown in a remote section of the Indian Ocean west of Australia, giving engineers their best look yet at how the vehicle's heat shield performed during reentry and prompting the company to consider catching the ship on its next flight.

What Happened

The 408-foot-tall rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas, at 5:51 pm CDT carrying Starship on an hour-long flight over the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean. This was the second flight of Starship Version 3, SpaceX's latest iteration of the world's most powerful rocket. The ship reentered Earth's atmosphere at the end of its trajectory, where more than 18,000 ceramic tiles protecting its stainless steel airframe endured temperatures up to 2,600°F. Unlike previous splashdowns that ended in conflagrations, this Starship gently tipped over and came to rest floating intact. SpaceX engineers flew drones over the vehicle to inspect the heat shield—the first time an intact Starship has been recovered from water. The Super Heavy booster, however, experienced issues during its landing attempt when some Raptor engines failed to restart for the landing burn, causing it to fall into the ocean at high speed.

Why It Matters

The successful heat shield performance represents a critical data point for SpaceX's reusability goals. Elon Musk indicated that unless mission data review reveals problems, SpaceX will attempt to catch Starship with the launch tower's mechanical arms on the next flight—a maneuver the company has already accomplished with Super Heavy but not yet with the upper stage. Catching Starship would require bringing the vehicle back from a longer trajectory, potentially low-Earth orbit, and slowing it to a hover before capture. The intact splashdown also opens the possibility of towing the rocket back for detailed inspections, though salt water exposure complicates reuse plans.

The Bottom Line

Flight 13 marked progress on multiple fronts: Starship survived reentry structurally intact for the first time in a water landing, yielding valuable heat shield data. The Super Heavy booster's incomplete landing burn remains an area for improvement with Version 3 hardware. SpaceX is now positioned to consider its next major milestone—catching the upper stage with tower arms on a future flight pending mission data review.

Sources

Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/spacex-eyes-tower-catch-for-next-starship-after-auspicious-end-to-13th-flight/