Third time's the charm, apparently even for a rocket the size of an office building. After one launch scrubbed by a last-second engine abort and another scrubbed by weather, SpaceX's Starship finally got off the ground on Flight 13 — and this time, it actually did everything it was supposed to.

Third Attempt's the Charm

Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas on Friday evening, its 13th flight test and the first since SpaceX's blockbuster IPO last month. The first attempt on July 16 was auto-aborted at T-0 when four Raptor engines failed to hit their starting parameters; the second, on July 23, got scrubbed by bad weather. Flight 13 finally flew, and it was the first Starship mission to deploy the next-generation Starlink V3 satellites — 20 of them, released into suborbit and successfully making contact with ground receivers.

The Super Heavy booster, designated Booster 20, then attempted an ocean landing burn. Only 10 of its planned Raptor engines relit, and two of those cut out again within seconds — yet the booster still managed a soft, controlled splashdown in the Gulf.

A Booster That Landed Like It Meant It

The bigger story here isn't the near-perfect flight, it's what SpaceX chose to fly on it. Putting brand-new, larger and more powerful Starlink V3 satellites on a test flight — rather than ballast — is a bet that paid off, giving the company its first real flight data on hardware its entire next-gen internet constellation depends on.

It's also a pointed answer to anyone who assumed a record IPO might make SpaceX more conservative about blowing things up in the name of progress. Two scrubbed attempts and an engine that quit mid-relight didn't stop the mission from meeting its goals — which is very on-brand for a company whose test flights have historically included more fireballs than successes.

Somewhere in Boca Chica, a booster that lost two engines mid-landing is currently floating in the Gulf, and it's still having a better week than most.

Source: MyRGV