SpaceX Starship Floats Intact in the Indian Ocean After IFT-13

Starbase, Texas, July 24. SpaceX sent the 13th Starship test flight aloft at 6:51 p.m. Eastern time, and about 65 minutes later the upper stage hit the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia and floated.

Ship 40 made a controlled, rocket-powered descent and splashed down upright. It kept sending live telemetry and video from the water. SpaceX commentator Dan Huot called it the 'softest splashdown ever.'

On every previous Starship flight that ended in the ocean, the vehicle tipped over, burned through residual propellant, and broke apart on contact with the water. July 24 was the first to survive intact.

The flight deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites from Ship 40's payload bay. They re-entered the atmosphere on a planned suborbital arc roughly 20 minutes after release.

SpaceX had recovery crews in the Indian Ocean ahead of the launch to monitor the vehicle. The company has been in discussions with U.S. and Australian authorities on setting up Starship recovery operations off the Australian coast, according to Reuters.

Super Heavy Booster 20, the first stage, reached its planned splashdown zone in the Gulf of Mexico. SpacePolicyOnline reported that eight of its 13 landing-burn engines failed to reignite on the descent, producing a harder-than-planned contact.

Vessel-tracking platforms recorded a sharp rise in searches for vessels operating near the Indian Ocean recovery zone on July 24 and 25. GO AUSTRALIS, an offshore supply vessel registered in Panama, drew new tracking interest during the window.