Starship Flight 13 was More than Lucky!
Image Credit: SpaceX Video Stream at 1 minute into flight.
Boca Chica - Starbase, Texas On the evening of May 22, 2026 and going into the Memorial holiday weekend, with countless thousands of SpaceX fans, interested space officials, media & employees with glued to the launch site or watching thru a live stream, SpaceX launched their latest version of Starship, SpaceX sent the Heavy V3 version of Starship into a sub-orbit flight ending in the Indian Ocean. This was the twelfth flight of the massive SpaceX rocket.
Now fast forward to today, July 24, 2026 and the thirteenth flight of Starship from Texas. Flight Thirteen launched at 6:51 PM EDT. This is an impressive feat to have a turnaround of flights just two months apart. This launch was delayed from a previous attempt when the rocket aborted at ignition and then again due to weather.
The mammoth vehicle towering 124 meters (406 feet) tall completed several objectives bringing SpaceX to be on the cusp of readiness for orbital flight which included launch, stage separation a boost back burn, deployment of functional StarLink V3 satellites, and landing the booster offshore while the Starship portioned attained a sub-orbital flight and landed in the Indian Ocean.
With each new flight of Starship, SpaceX continues to learn, rework and develop systems that keep the entire program moving into what hopes to be a first orbital flight of the rocket.
This launch solidifies SpaceX’s over all grip on launch abilities and capabilities and sets forth that its rockets as being “ready for prime time” allowing NASA to seriously consider SpaceX as being preferred vendor moving forward to landing on the moon with their continued success. This also shows with the construction of the Giga-Bay and the building and work at both LC-39A and LC-37 and Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral S.F.S. in Florida.
With flight thirteen, a couple of items of note: SpaceX successfully deployed a series of functional Starlink V3 satellites and by all accounts were in communication with ground systems. It is being reported 20 satellites were deployed as well as the successful relighting test of a Raptor engine while in space.
While the Starship has nowhere near the cadence of Falcon 9 launches, flight eleven of Starship took place last year on October 14, 2025 when SpaceX launched the rocket from Boca Chica, Texas. At present, Starship launches about twice a year as development of this new rocket continues.
Successful on so many levels, SpaceX continues to develop and test the world’s most powerful rocket.
While they have not yet made a full Earth orbit attempt with the Starship portion of the rocket, progress continues to both the Starship and first stage booster with each launch. As with some other launches, the first stage booster did not make an attempt at a catch landing back at the launch site rather it landed in the Gulf of Mexico (America) East of the launch site. It appears that the booster did not light all the landing engines and made a hard landing while Starship continued its flight. Just over an hour later, the Starship made an incredible reentry and landing in the Indian Ocean. Video feeds of the flight show an amazing landing and the rocket floating perfectly on the ocean surface. Will flight fourteen attempt a full orbit of the Earth? With so much success of this flight, one wonders.
Article by: Graham Smith and Michael Howard – We Report Space
Image Credit: SpaceX