Starship Plunges Through Fire Before Stunning Soft Splashdown In Indian Ocean

SpaceX’s Starship Flight 13 lifted off at 6:51 p.m. EDT on July 24, 2026, beginning a test flight that lasted just over one hour.

The massive rocket’s Super Heavy Booster separated successfully, performed a flip and returned toward Earth. However, only five of the 13 planned engines appeared to fire during the landing burn, causing the Booster to hit the Gulf waters harder than planned.

The Ship upper stage successfully deployed all 20 next-generation Starlink Version 3 satellites during its suborbital flight. The satellites later fell back to Earth and burned up as planned.

Starship then reignited one of its six Raptor engines before beginning reentry. Cameras captured the spacecraft surrounded by super-hot plasma as it plunged back toward Earth.

The spacecraft performed a three-engine burn to flip into a vertical landing position, then shifted to two engines and finally one before tipping over and floating belly-up in the Indian Ocean.

The Ship remained intact and transmitted telemetry, with its six engines, flaps and other systems visible. SpaceX called it the “softest splashdown” Starship has achieved.