SpaceX Starship test flight lifts off as NASA tracks Moon lander progress

Capecanaveral,UPDATED: Jul 25, 2026 04:36 IST

SpaceX launched its 13th Starship test flight from its base in southern Texas, with NASA closely watching the mission as part of plans to use the spacecraft as a lunar lander for future moon crews. The 407-foot rocket was making the second flight this year of the new V3 version.

The latest launch came after two delays. A last-second abort on July 16 happened after six of the 33 engines on the first-stage booster failed to ignite, and the flight was then pushed back again by thick clouds linked to Tropical Storm Bertha. The previous Starship flight in May had also run into engine trouble, stopping the booster from making a controlled return.

As with the previous demonstration, which rose to 125 miles, neither the booster nor the spacecraft was meant to be recovered. Instead, both were to splash down in the sea after the roughly hour-long mission, with the booster heading for the Gulf of Mexico and the stainless steel spacecraft bound for the Indian Ocean more than 10,000 miles from the launch site.

Before re-entering over the Indian Ocean, Starship was to deploy Starlink satellites, which were expected to fly on their own for no more than 20 minutes. After being released from a dispenser similar to a Pez candy dispenser, the satellites were to open their solar wings and antennas and try to communicate by laser with older Starlink satellites already in orbit. SpaceX says it now has more than 10,000 Starlink satellites providing internet, making it the world’s largest satellite constellation.

Six of the newly launched Starlinks carried cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield. The shield also had sensors to measure the extreme pressure on the spacecraft during launch. Most of the thermal tiles were black, but some were deliberately painted white to mimic missing tiles as part of a test of the shield’s strength. SpaceX wants to be sure the heat shield can survive the heat of re-entry before attempting to bring Starship back to the Starbase launch pad near the Texas-Mexico border. The company has already used giant mechanical arms there to catch a Starship booster and plans to do the same with the spacecraft, which is designed to be fully reusable. NASA wants Starship to complete testing and reach orbit soon so the Artemis III crew of three Americans and one Italian can practise docking with it next year. Starship is also the vehicle Elon Musk plans to use for building a city on Mars, and he has already begun booking tourist trips to Mars and the moon.

The test flight was another key step in SpaceX’s effort to prepare Starship for future lunar missions, while also testing satellite deployment, re-entry systems and the company’s broader plans for a fully reusable spacecraft.

With PTI Inputs

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