# Starship Flight 13 [[SpaceX]]'s thirteenth [[Starship]] test flight — Booster 20 / Ship 40, the second flight of the Block 3 (V3) vehicle — lifted off from Starbase at 5:51 p.m. CDT on **July 24, 2026** and became the **first Starship flight to deploy operational satellites**, releasing 20 V3 [[Starlink]] satellites that made contact with ground receivers. The same flight extended the program's key weakness: the booster's offshore landing burn partly failed (only 10 of 13 Raptors relit, and 2 shut down within seconds), producing a hard splashdown in the Gulf — the second consecutive booster-landing failure after the May 2026 Flight 12 anomaly. ## What happened - **July 13** — the FAA closed its review of the Flight 12 mishap report, effectively lifting the grounding in place since May. - **July 16** — first launch attempt aborted at T-0 when 4 engines failed to ignite; SpaceX performed post-abort engine work. - **July 23** — second attempt scrubbed for weather at roughly T-2:50:00. - **July 24** — third attempt flew. Operational deployment of 20 V3 Starlink satellites succeeded; the booster's landing burn did not, ending in a hard Gulf splashdown. ## Why it matters - **The commercial loop closes.** Starship moving from test payloads to operational Starlink deployment is the milestone the launch-cadence story has been waiting on — V3 satellite mass to orbit is what underwrites the subscriber growth and Starshield capacity behind the contract narrative. See [[SpaceX Contracts]], [[SpaceX Investors]]. - **The anomaly risk stays live.** Two consecutive booster-landing failures keep the operational-risk flag on [[SpaceX Calendar]] raised, and shape what the FAA will demand before Flight 14's planned first upper-stage tower catch. - **Timing.** The flight landed eleven days before the maiden earnings report ([[SpaceX Q2 2026 Earnings Report]]) — a launch-ops proof point delivered into the most scrutinized week of the company's public life. ## Connects to - [[SpaceX Watch Log]] — logged 2026-07-13 (clearance), 2026-07-24 (flight) - [[SpaceX Calendar]] — the return-to-flight beat, matured - [[Starship]] · [[Starlink]] ## See Also - [[SpaceX]] — company page - [[SpaceX Dossier]] — dossier front door - [[SpaceX Events]] — index of SpaceX events/deals - [[Events Hub]]