Past launch
Launched successfully
Flight 13
Starship, flown by SpaceX
Launches / Starship
Starship, flown by SpaceX
This was SpaceX's 89th launch of 2026, and its 708th in all.
It was the second launch from Orbital Launch Pad 2 in 2026.
SpaceX
13th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Second flight of Starship V3. For the first time, Starship will carry 20 V3 Starlink satellites to space, which will extend solar arrays and antennas and will attempt to connect with ground stations in South Africa and the larger Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers. 6 of the satellites have been modified with a suite of cameras to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to continue testing methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test.
The SpaceX Starship is a fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX since 2012, as a self-funded private spaceflight project. The second stage of the Starship — is designed as a long-duration cargo and passenger-carrying spacecraft. It is expected to be initially used without any booster stage at all, as part of an extensive development program to prove out launch-and-landing and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to the vehicle's atmospheric reentry.
Third development version of the Starship reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle.
First stage Second stage
Simulated from the published flight plan. The climb flattens as the rocket pitches over to build sideways speed, which is why a launch stays visible so far from the pad. A dashed line is a stage that separates and flies back down, either to the pad or to a ship waiting downrange.
Going to watch it in person? Flyby's Pathfinder points your camera at the pad, so you are not stood there guessing which one it goes up from. It puts this same climb on a globe you can turn, too.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.
724 launches so far, 709 of them successful. The last 209 in a row went to plan.
It went up from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA.
This one is done, but there is another along shortly. Flyby works out whether it climbs into your sky, and wakes you in time to get outside.
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