Starship Completes 13th Test Flight With Successful Splashdown
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- SpaceX completed a test flight of its Starship megarocket, with the rocket achieving a successful soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean roughly an hour after launch.
- The mission was the Starship program's 13th test flight overall.
- This marked the second flight for the V3 version of Starship.
- The launch represented Starship's first flight as a publicly traded company.
- SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, had cited engine failure at liftoff during an aborted launch attempt the prior week.
Why it matters: Coming one week after an aborted launch due to engine failure, the successful V3 flight demonstrates SpaceX's ability to iterate quickly — and the mission's status as Starship's first flight as a publicly traded company means public-market investors now have a live test program tracking to their quarterly results.
