SpaceX's Starship has launched for its 13th test flight, carrying the company's next-generation V3 Starlink satellites. This marks the first time these enhanced satellites, designed for significant performance boosts including up to 1 Tbps downlink, are being flown.

During this test, Starship will deploy 20 V3 satellites. These satellites will extend their solar arrays and antennas to test connectivity with the Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers. They are expected to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up approximately 20 minutes after deployment, remaining in suborbital space.

As part of the testing, two Starlink satellites have been equipped with cameras to scan Starship's heat shield, transmitting images for analysis. This is the second flight for the V3 Starship model, with the primary goal of collecting data to further SpaceX's efforts toward a fully reusable design.