Elon Musk’s Starship completes most successful test on 13th flight, delivers 20 Starlink satellites

4 min readUpdated: Jul 25, 2026 10:34 AM IST SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lifts off for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP) ‘Friday’ and ’13’ have proved lucky for the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX. The space tech giant on Friday launched its Starship rocket on another test flight that marked the spacecraft’s most successful mission yet, deploying 20 next-generation Starlink satellites before making a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 13th Starship test flight. Standing 407 feet (124 metres) tall, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. The mission lasted about an hour, ending with the spacecraft descending gently into the Indian Ocean, where it remained afloat, a first for Starship,