SpaceX Targets July 23 For Starship Flight 13 Launch Retry: All Details
· Free Press Journal
SpaceX is now aiming for July 23, to launch the thirteenth flight test of its Starship rocket, after the previous attempt was called off in the final seconds of countdown. The mission will mark the second flight of the upgraded Starship Version 3 configuration and will carry the company's next generation Starlink V3 satellites to space for the first time.
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What happened during the aborted attempt?
SpaceX had originally planned to launch Flight 13 from its Starbase facility in South Texas on July 16, with a 90-minute window opening at 6:45 pm Eastern Time. However, the countdown was halted just as the Super Heavy booster's Raptor engines began igniting, triggering an automatic launch abort. Elon Musk said on social media shortly after that some of the engines had failed to start, which set off the abort sequence, and added that the vehicle's propellant was being offloaded as SpaceX assessed next steps. He later said two Raptor engines would be removed and replaced before the next attempt, with launch most likely early the following week. The company subsequently moved its target from July 20 to July 23 as preparations continued.
SpaceX Shares Slip Below IPO Price After Starship Launch Is AbortedWhat Flight 13 aims to achieve?
The upcoming mission is designed to repeat several objectives that SpaceX had targeted during Flight 12, including a full ascent of the Super Heavy booster, stage separation, a boostback maneuver, and a controlled landing burn over an offshore site. During Flight 12, five of the booster's 33 Raptor engines had run into problems while attempting to restart for the boostback burn, cutting the maneuver short, while Starship itself lost one of its three vacuum optimised Raptor engines around 40 seconds after stage separation. SpaceX has said it has revised the engine startup sequence and made hardware changes aimed at improving relight reliability and making the booster's directional flip more consistent, since a timing mismatch during Flight 12 had thrown the flip roughly 90 degrees off its intended orientation.
Starlink V3 satellites to fly for the first time
Flight 13 will also be the first time SpaceX carries its next generation Starlink V3 satellites aboard Starship. The upper stage is expected to deploy 20 of these satellites roughly 16 minutes into the mission, along with an in-space relight of one Raptor engine at around the 39 minute mark. Since the satellites will remain on Starship's suborbital trajectory, they are expected to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up approximately 20 minutes after deployment rather than reach orbit. Six of the 20 satellites will carry cameras positioned to capture images of Starship's heat shield, with several tiles deliberately painted white to simulate missing sections and give the cameras clear reference points.
The aborted attempt on July 16 was notable for being the first Starship launch try since SpaceX went public in June this year, and the company's shares briefly fell in after-hours trading following the scrub before partially recovering.