en.Wedoany.com Reported - Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) completed the 13th launch of its Starship on Friday, July 24, with the Starship upper stage achieving a soft splashdown in the ocean near the west coast of Australia, meeting all major milestones.

The launch took place from SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas. The upper stage delivered 20 next-generation Starlink satellites into high-altitude orbit, reignited one Raptor engine in space, and then completed a soft splashdown near the west coast of Australia. The Starship's lower stage encountered engine issues during flight, but newly released video shows the upper stage's flight and descent performed normally.

The Starship upper stage relayed signals through a buoy in the Indian Ocean, generating a video on the X platform. The footage shows the 171-foot (52-meter) upper stage skimming over the water, with engines gimbaling and producing steam before achieving a soft splashdown.

SpaceX released another video on July 28, showing the Starship adjusting to a near-vertical orientation above the water after violent oscillations in the air. A shipboard view of the splashdown captured the intense rocking and sea surface steam. The ocean landing was quite gentle, and SpaceX stated on the X platform that on July 28, the upper stage was still floating in the Indian Ocean, with the Starship recovery team continuing to collect imagery of the vehicle at sea.

The Starship Version 3 used in this flight is a 408-foot-tall stacked system, consisting of a Super Heavy booster and an upper stage, also referred to as Starship or Ship. SpaceX's goal is to make the system rapidly reusable for crewed lunar missions and for launching more powerful, larger Starlink satellites.

However, Starship still needs to achieve a series of objectives to support the docking of the crewed Artemis III mission scheduled for next year as planned, and potentially to land astronauts on the lunar surface during the Artemis IV mission. Ars Technica recently cited expert opinions raising concerns about Starship's heat shield, suggesting that further improvements to the thermal protection system are needed to achieve reusability.