Starship executed a *nearly* flawless test flight 13 yesterday evening. Perfect launch and flight, and Ship deployed 20 of the upcoming Starlink V3 satellites. Then Ship did the totally unexpected - its soft landing in the ocean was SO soft, when it fell over into the water, IT DIDN'T EXPLODE!! It just floated there in the waves (spawning a thousand memes). So now SpaceX has a slightly worn but flight-tested Ship that it wasn't expecting; oh, the tests they're going to run on that machine, lol.
The only flaw in the test was that the booster only lit 5 of its 13 engines during landing burn, so landed harder than expected in the ocean. Not nearly as severe of a failure as in the last test, but they do continue to have some issues with the booster engines they need to work out.
It was an incredibly beautiful flight, full of jaw-dropping visuals.
