'Twice Delayed' SpaceX Starship Rocket Successfully Launched

Experimental Deployment of 20 Starlink V3 Satellites
Musk: "Starship is Transmitting Data Fully Intact"

The launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites was successfully completed.

On the 24th (local time), a massive 124-meter Starship rocket was launched at the SpaceX Starbase located south of Texas, USA. SpaceX

On the 24th (local time), news agencies including AFP reported that a gigantic 124-meter Starship rocket was launched from the SpaceX space launch site in southern Texas. This marked the successful completion of Starship's 13th test flight. The booster fell into the Gulf of Mexico, while the spacecraft flew for one hour before splashing down in the Indian Ocean, 16,000 kilometers from the launch site. AFP reported that cheers erupted among employees at the facility who were watching the livestream as Starship landed in the water.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, stated via his social networking service X (formerly Twitter), "Starship is floating in the sea intact and is transmitting telemetry data."

During this flight, 20 new Starlink V3 satellites—featuring improved bandwidth and internet speeds—were deployed 20 minutes after launch, and the enhanced thermal shield was tested. The Starlink satellites onboard Starship were released from a PEZ (shaped like a stick-type dispenser toy), then deployed their solar wings and antennas, and attempted laser communications with older Starlink models already in orbit. These satellites briefly connected with SpaceX’s existing Starlink satellite internet service before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up. These were tests to evaluate the satellite separation system, solar panel deployment, and space communication capabilities.

Additionally, 6 of the newly launched Starlink satellites were equipped with cameras to film Starship’s thermal shield. The heat shield was also fitted with sensors to measure pressure on the spacecraft during launch. This was to verify whether the heat shield could withstand reentry temperatures ahead of SpaceX’s future plans to return Starship to the Starbase launch facility near the Texas-Mexico border.

SpaceX plans to deploy thousands of V3 satellites into Earth's orbit using Starship by the end of this year. The company aims to expand its Starlink satellite communications network, currently comprising about 10,000 satellites, to enable direct connections to mobile devices such as smartphones.

SpaceX described the 13th test flight as "providing extremely important data in preparations to expand the company's satellite internet service, Starlink satellite constellation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.