SpaceX ready for 2nd attempt to launch Starship Flight 13 following post-abort engine work – Spaceflight Now
Update July 23, 4:10 pm EDT (2010 UTC): SpaceX waived off a launch attempt due to climate; concentrating on July 24.
SpaceX will take one other run at launching its Starship-Super Heavy rocket from southern Texas, however not till after Tropical Storm Bertha completed pushing by way of Texas.
Like the attempt one week in the past, a 90-minute launch window will open at 5:45 pm CDT (6:45 pm EDT / 2245 UTC) on Friday, July 24. The flight comes after days of work changing and testing a number of Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster.
Spaceflight Now can have stay protection starting about two hours prior to liftoff.
Moments earlier than the post-ignition abort on Thursday, July 16, on-screen telemetry information confirmed 4 engines that apparently didn’t ignite. During the pre-dawn hours of Friday, July 17, Ship 40 (S40) was de-stacked from Booster 20 (B20) and returned to the manufacturing web site at Starbase.
Later that day, SpaceX additionally eliminated B20 and rolled it alongside the practically three trek again to the manufacturing web site as effectively. Founder Elon Musk stated that not less than two Raptor engines wanted to be eliminated following the exhausting engine cease through the launch attempt.
Following per week of work, B20 returned to Pad 2 on Tuesday, July 21. The following day, SpaceX loaded it with each liquid oxygen and liquid methane earlier than draining the car once more.
(*13*) SpaceX posted on social media following the take a look at’s conclusion. “Weather is currently a significant watch item for launch.”
Ship 40 returned the pad on Wednesday, July 22, and was stacked atop Booster 20 that night.
One of the primary targets of this thirteenth take a look at flight is to deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites from S40. SpaceX has beforehand deployed Starlink simulators from earlier Starships, however this might be the primary deployment of manufacturing satellites.
“As part of this initial test, Starship is planned to deploy 20 satellites which will extend solar arrays and antennas and will attempt to connect with the larger Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers,” SpaceX stated on its web site. “The Starlink satellites will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon reentry approximately 20 minutes after deployment.”
SpaceX additionally plans to carry out a Raptor engine spotlight following the roughly 11-minute satellite tv for pc deploy sequence. Teams additionally hope that work performed on the sea-level Raptor engines mixed with a brand new startup sequence on the Ship higher stage will enable for a profitable boostback burn on Booster 20 and a splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico.
During Starship Flight 12 again in May, SpaceX stated the startup sequence of the engines on Ship 39 “caused the directional flip of the booster to be off by approximately 90 degrees.” That coupled with points with 5 out of 33 sea-level engines on the booster prevented a nominal boostback burn and Booster 19 was misplaced prematurely.
“The Super Heavy on this upcoming flight has hardware modifications to improve re-light reliability along with updates to engine alarms and aborts to match the conditions seen in the multi-engine flight environment,” the corporate stated.
Other engine enhancements are designed to forestall an early shutdown seen throughout Flight 12 that prevented an engine spotlight demonstration on that mission.
Work on the higher stage’s warmth protect to assist push it in the direction of future, full reusability will even be on show.
“Multiple tiles will be attached to the metallic side of Starship’s aft flaps along with modified tiles and attachment mechanisms in the heat shield covering the aft skirt to gather flight data on different attachment options,” SpaceX stated. “Finally, Starship’s heat shield will have load sensing tiles to take measurements as the vehicle experiences higher dynamic pressure on ascent than previous flights, putting added stress on the tile attachments in exchange for increased payload to orbit capability.”
An almost similar model of the Starship Version 3 rocket flying at this time will likely be used on the Artemis 3 mission, which can embrace a docking between Starship and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
A brand new report printed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Thursday appears at a collection of NASA’s long-term initiatives, together with these concerned with the Artemis Program.
It factors to “a series of testing challenges” encountered by SpaceX when it comes to the Human Landing System model of Starship that will likely be used to return people to the Moon. NASA needs to carry out a lunar touchdown with astronauts as quickly as 2028 with both Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander.
The GAO report famous not solely is SpaceX “more than a year behind its original schedule for key events,” just like the crucial design overview and an uncrewed touchdown demonstration, however improvement of its Raptor engines is described as a “top risk.”
“According to HLS officials, the latest version of the Raptor engine incorporates improvements such as welded fuel joints designed to prevent the fuel leaks that resulted in the loss of the Starship vehicle during flight testing in March 2025,” the report acknowledged. “Flight test 12, conducted in May 2026, was the first flight test of the new version of the engine.”
The GAO report famous that NASA officers pushed again on some assessments and acknowledged that the report’s evaluation “does not reflect all ongoing programmatic changes stemming from adjustments made to the Artemis campaign in February and March 2026.”
“Officials did not have any technical corrections on the assessment,” the report stated.
