SpaceX Feed

Falcon 9 is vertical at pad 40 in Florida ahead of Thursday’s launch of the NRO gov and Space Systems Command's NROL-95 mission → spacex.com/launches/nrol95 Source: @SpaceX

Starship in space on Flight 13 Source: @SpaceX

‍Starship passed a number of key tests on Friday. But the biggest hurdle to full and rapid reuse remains ahead.

SpaceX successfully launched its Starship vehicle on Friday and appeared to demonstrate important and credible steps toward fulfilling the massive rocket’s immense promise. As soon as the vehicle’s next flight, Starship could go orbital, begin delivering satellites into space, and potentially return to the launch site to be ‘caught’ by the tower. All of this is impressive engineering on a gigantic scale. But despite the marked progress with the 13th test flight of Starship, one key issue—probably the key issue when it comes to Starship’s future—remains unresolved. This concerns Starship’s heat shield, the roughly 18,000 ceramic tiles that protect the vehicle’s underbelly during its fiery return through Earth’s atmosphere. And some experts say SpaceX’s current approach may not get Starship to its ultimate goal of flying frequently, at low cost.

arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/… Source: @SciGuySpace

Before and after flight 13 Starbase Weekly youtube.com/live/P4QfaYBdX… Source: @RGVaerialphotos

Starship Flight 13, the second flight of Starship V3, in slow motion. Source: @dwisecinema Multiple angles

High-speed video of 33 Raptor engines powering the Super Heavy booster on Flight 13 Source: @SpaceX

‍This flight intentionally had much higher acceleration to test how well the heat shield tiles would remain attached at high dynamic pressure. Test was successful. Source: RT @elonmusk

The sights and sounds of launching the world's most powerful rocket Source: @SpaceX

View from above as Starship launched from Pad 2 at Starbase Source: @SpaceX

Liftoff of Starship on its thirteenth flight test Source: @SpaceX

Falcon 9 launches 24 Starlink satellites from California Source: @SpaceX

If Starhopper could talk, I wonder what it’d say about how incredibly far teams have come since its first 20-meter hop, seven years ago today. Starhopper’s history: youtu.be/Jem5iFXMAhU?is… Source: @_MaxQ_

Deployment of 24 Starlink satellites confirmed Source: @SpaceX

‍Watch Falcon 9 launch 24 Starlink satellites to orbit from California x.com/i/broadcasts/1… Source: @SpaceX

‍I went a bit quiet there as we we had a flurry of activity over the past week and weekend but the outcome was worth the effort. Megabay killed it last weekend, thank you folks for being awesome. Great flight 13 for both Booster 20 and Starship 40, which finished its mission floating intact in the Indian Ocean (a first as we’ve previously lost the nose on slapdown after water landings). Really critical data collected this mission on a demonstration deorbit burn for Raptor, and a first flight for the next generation Starlink satellites. It feels like we are ready to kick into gear on delivering payload to orbit, which I am very excited for. Development vehicles are fun but at the end of the day, we are here to put things into space and I am psyched about this rocket’s game changing capabilities. Source: RT @ShanaDiez Director of Starship Engineering

‍Unless we discover problems after mission data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on next flight Source: RT @elonmusk

Starship has cleared the tower Source: @RGVaerialphotos

Starship soared on the second flight of the next generation, deploying advanced Starlink satellites for the first time and providing priceless data as it travelled through air, space, and sea → spacex.com/launches/stars… Source: @SpaceX

‍Excited for the first deployment of Starlink V3 sats - we’ve successfully communicated with all sats using RF and laser links and been able to download key telemetry. Source: RT @michaelnicollsx VP of Starlink Engineering

SpaceX Starship Heat Shield Comparison Between Flights 10-13. It’s getting better every time. This is what progress looks like. 🦾 Source: @niccruzpatane