SpaceX's Starship completes flawless suborbital flight, deploys satellites

SpaceX has achieved a major milestone with its Starship rocket, successfully completing its 13th test flight with a suborbital trajectory and a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This marks a critical step for the company as it aims for orbital flights in future missions.

The latest test, conducted from SpaceX's Starbase in Texas, saw the 124.4-meter-tall, third-generation Starship perform flawlessly. Unlike previous attempts where the Super Heavy booster crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, this time it returned safely to the ocean. The Starship upper stage, after completing its journey around the Earth, also achieved a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean west of Australia, a first for the program.

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Starship landing intact in the ocean is a dream scenario come true.

"Starship landing intact in the ocean is a dream scenario come true," said Dan Huot, a SpaceX spokesperson. The mission also featured the first-time deployment and testing of 20 actual Starlink satellites. These satellites were successfully ejected over about 10 minutes and then re-entered the atmosphere, with SpaceX testing their communication links during this phase.

Elon Musk commented on the satellite deployment, stating, "Today's test is to see if the third-generation Starlink works properly in space, and it will provide important data for expanding the Starlink constellation." The success of this 13th flight paves the way for SpaceX to potentially attempt an orbital flight on its next mission, as previously indicated by Gwynne Shotwell, the company's president.

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Today's test is to see if the third-generation Starlink works properly in space, and it will provide important data for expanding the Starlink constellation.