Elon Musk’s company shared – on the social network X – some photographs and videos of the moment of landing, which took place almost an hour and a half after the Starship will take off from Texas on Friday, July 24.
In the shared records, it is observed how the powerful rocket descends in a vertical position and in a controlled manner towards the surface of the sea, on which it rests before falling on its side on the water and remains floating.
SpaceX clarified that the ship is still in the Indian Ocean, while the recovery team collects images of the rocket.
In addition to the thirteenth test launch of the powerful rocket, it was also the second of the Super Heavy booster, which constitutes the first of the two phases of the space vehicle, and the first in which the Starship was equipped with twenty new-generation Starlink V3 satellites.
Apart from fine-tuning the performance of the third version of the Starship and the booster, the test also put the V3 satellites into orbit.
Other goals achieved included the first in-space ignition of a Raptor engine, executing the pushback maneuver of the Super Heavy V3 booster with its 33 engines, and collecting crucial data on heat shield performance during Starship re-entry.
The launch was carried out after two postponements: the first, on July 16, due to a failure in the ignition of several engines that forced the operation to be aborted, and the second due to bad weather conditions.
This was the second test mission of the third model of the Starship so far this year, after the one that took place in May.
NASA is closely following the program, as it needs this third version of the spacecraft to transport astronauts to the lunar surface on the Artemis mission.
The manned mission to the Moon was postponed to early 2028, in part due to delays in rocket development.
SpaceX competes directly with Blue Origin, the aerospace company of tycoon Jeff Bezos, which offers its Blue Moon system as an alternative.