SpaceX conducted a successful test flight of its latest Starship rocket design on Friday evening, marking a significant step in its development program. The flight, the 13th for Starship overall and the second for the new Version 3 configuration, achieved nearly all of its key objectives, including improvements from previous tests and deployment of operational satellites.

The 407-foot-tall rocket launched at 6:51 p.m. Eastern time from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas. Starship consists of two reusable stages: the Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage spacecraft, also called Starship or Ship. The full reusability of both stages aims to reduce costs for satellite launches and other missions.

All 33 engines on the booster ignited successfully, a notable improvement from an aborted attempt eight days earlier. During its descent over the Gulf of Mexico, the booster stage aimed to perform a controlled landing but ultimately impacted the water at speed rather than hovering as planned. The upper-stage Ship continued into space, where it deployed 20 fully functional next-generation Starlink internet satellites. Previous flights had tested satellite deployment using non-operational models, but this mission saw the new satellites extend their solar arrays, activate antennas, and link with the existing Starlink constellation via laser communications.

The upper-stage Ship also restarted one of its engines for a 14-second burn, demonstrating a critical maneuver needed for future orbital flights. Such engine reignitions are necessary to safely deorbit the spacecraft; without this capability, the Ship would remain in orbit and eventually re-enter uncontrolled, potentially posing hazards on the ground.

The mission trajectory took the vehicle over the Indian Ocean, with deployed satellites following the same path. These satellites re-entered and burned up approximately 20 minutes post-deployment. Prior to their atmospheric break-up, six of the satellites used onboard cameras to gather data on the Ship’s heat shield performance during re-entry, when temperatures reach thousands of degrees Celsius.

Unlike prior tests, the upper-stage Ship completed its descent intact, touching down softly on the surface of the Indian Ocean without exploding or breaking apart. The spacecraft maintained communication signals during the landing, providing live video feeds. SpaceX webcast hosts described this milestone as the first time an intact Starship was recovered from the water.

If post-flight data does not reveal significant issues, SpaceX plans to advance to more challenging goals, such as achieving orbit, returning the upper-stage spacecraft to Texas, and catching it on the launch tower—techniques the company has performed with the booster.

This progress is closely watched by NASA, which relies on Starship for its Artemis lunar program. SpaceX has been contracted to adapt Starship to serve as a lunar lander, ferrying astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon’s surface. To meet NASA’s requirements, SpaceX must demonstrate complex capabilities such as rapid repeat launches and in-space refueling of propellant—a process involving the transfer of ultracold liquid methane and oxygen in microgravity, which remains unproven.

The successful test flight may also bolster investor confidence in SpaceX, which debuted on the stock market in June with the largest initial public offering to date. The company’s shares surged following the IPO but have since declined, closing last week at $115.07. SpaceX plans to use Starship to launch up to a million data center satellites, underpinning its broader commercial ambitions in space infrastructure.