SpaceX's 13th Starship Test Flight Ends in Soft Splashdown
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- SpaceX completed Starship's 13th test flight, achieving a successful soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean roughly an hour after launch.
- The flight was the second outing for the V3 variant of Starship, the upgraded version of Musk's megarocket.
- SpaceX cited engine failure at liftoff during an aborted launch attempt last week, making this week's clean retest a direct recovery from that setback.
- The successful mission marked Starship's first flight as a publicly traded company, a milestone for the newly public firm.
Why it matters: Clearing last week's engine-failure abort with a clean splashdown on Starship's 13th flight — and its first as a publicly traded company — gives SpaceX a tangible confidence marker for newly public shareholders watching the megarocket program. The V3 milestone matters because it advances the vehicle iteration cadence investors now see in real time.
