SpaceX’s Starship test successfully reaches space, deploys satellites after record-breaking IPO

SpaceX just pulled off its 13th Starship flight test, sending the world’s largest rocket to space and deploying 20 Starlink V3 satellites along the way. The July 24 launch from Starbase, Texas, was the company’s first Starship mission since its blockbuster IPO in June, and it went about as well as shareholders could have hoped. For a company that raised approximately $86 billion in what became the largest IPO in history, sticking the landing on a high-profile test flight is the kind of thing that keeps investor confidence from evaporating. What actually happened during Flight 13 The V3 Starship/Super Heavy vehicle launched on a suborbital trajectory, carrying 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites. These were the first fully functional V3 variants ever carried by Starship, designed to test enhanced network capabilities and faster speeds for SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation. The mission hit several technical milestones. SpaceX successfully relit its Raptor engines while in space, a capability that’s essential for future orbital missions and any serious talk about Mars. The upper stage achieved what the company described as its “softest splashdown” to date, executing a contro...