Starship nails pristine splashdown, eyes orbital leap and tower catch

SpaceX’s 13th Starship test ended with a near-perfect, intact splashdown in the Indian Ocean and the company is preparing for an orbital flight that could see the vehicle caught by the launch tower; engineers are prioritizing heat-shield data after surviving reentry with 18,000 tiles, while Starlink V3 satellites were deployed and burned up during the mission, signaling progress toward orbital missions and related refueling and Artemis-era goals.