It seems like SpaceX’s subsequent Starship flight is on the horizon, and it could carry off prior to you would possibly assume.
SpaceX right now (July 10) accomplished a short static fireplace of the Starship Tremendous Heavy booster tapped to launch the thirteenth check flight of the huge, mega-lift car.
Booster 20 — the most recent Tremendous Heavy to roll off the meeting line — was transported to the pad at SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas, facility yesterday (July 9) and hoisted onto its help stand utilizing the launch tower’s stalwart “Mechazilla” chopstick arms. By early Friday, SpaceX started preparations main as much as the prelaunch engine check, together with closing Boca Chica seaside round 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) and transferring gas to the pad’s tank farm forward of loading propellant onto the car.
Full-duration, 33-engine static fireplace of Tremendous Heavy V3 pic.twitter.com/JFdGYqEvwwJuly 10, 2026
That is the second “Model 3” (V3) booster to succeed in the pad at Starbase for testing, and is provided with 33 of SpaceX’s upgraded Raptor 3 engines. These engines ignited in a blazing warmth on Friday simply earlier than 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), and underwent a roughly 25-second burn simulating on the launch stand the period and flight situations for an precise launch.
The profitable completion of Booster 20’s static check fireplace paves the way in which for Starship’s upcoming check launch, Flight 13. That might launch as early as Wednesday (July 15), in accordance with a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration.
In comparison with Model 2 (V2), Starship V3 packs a a lot stronger punch. The rocket was upgraded with enhanced avionics to scale back mass and enhance launch capability, a taller gas tank with a bigger quantity, and gear for transferring propellant between spacecraft, which can be wanted to satisfy lots of the missions Starship is being designed to hold out.
A handful of these missions can be for NASA’s Artemis program, and the company’s plans to return to the moon. Starship is considered one of two lunar landers at present contracted to ship astronauts to the lunar floor, so, its success and well timed demonstration of the applied sciences wanted to take action are coming beneath a microscope because the timeline for these missions shrinks.
Flight 13 will observe the identical fundamental timeline as Flight 12, which lifted off in Might with blended success. Flight 12 was the primary launch of Starship V3, and prompted SpaceX to fly a barely extra conservative mission than many earlier assessments, which have constructed on earlier successes with more and more increasing targets. Starship’s final flight despatched the car’s higher stage, Ship, on a suborbital trajectory with a gentle splashdown within the Indian Ocean. SpaceX bumped into some points, although, when the rocket’s Tremendous Heavy booster (Booster 19) didn’t maneuver itself for a gentle ocean splashdown of its personal. Ship (Ship 39) additionally bumped into an engine anomaly that induced SpaceX to forgo the stage’s in-space engine relight demonstration.
Ship 40 and Booster 20, the Starship autos that can fly on Flight 13, will observe the identical set of mission goals to shake out the rest of kinks in Starship V3. Spacex hopes the mission will pave the way in which for additional know-how demonstration assessments the car wants to finish earlier than reaching full operational standing. That features the retrieval of each levels again at their Starbase launch pad, for refurbishment and reuse on future flights.
Starship is designed to be absolutely reusable, and able to delivering over 100 tons to low Earth orbit. As soon as the rocket begins frequently delivering payloads, Ship and Tremendous Heavy will have the ability to each return to Starbase to be caught by the Mechazilla arms on each of the positioning’s two launch towers. SpaceX has succeeded in a handful of V2 Tremendous Heavy catches throughout its earlier flight assessments, and managed to launch two of these recovered boosters on subsequent missions, however has not but tried to do the identical with a Ship higher stage.
That is as a result of touchdown Ship is far completely different than touchdown Tremendous Heavy. SpaceX has a whole lot of observe touchdown and reflying rocket boosters. The corporate’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket launches a number of occasions a month, and is routinely recovered, refurbished and reflown inside a brief few weeks. A batch of Starlink satellites just lately launched on considered one of SpaceX’s most-flown Falcon 9 boosters, which broke a reflight report because it touched down for the thirty sixth time after delivering its payloads to orbit. Although it lacks the touchdown legs of Falcon 9, Tremendous Heavy’s descent again to Earth is similar to a Falcon 9 booster, and due to this fact much less advanced an engineering query to have to unravel in comparison with Starship’s higher stage.
Ship drops by the environment belly-first, permitting the black, hexagonal warmth defend tiles that cowl half the car to soak up the blazing temperatures of reentry. Fins close to the spacecraft’s nostril and base management its orientation and perspective, which stays largely horizontal throughout its freefall. To an extent, Ship’s descent profile shouldn’t be very in contrast to the area shuttles, apart from its precise landing, which differs considerably.
As Ship’s altitude decreases towards sea stage, the car performs a “flip and burn” maneuver that swings the entire stage upright and arrests its descent for a gentle landing — ultimately again on the Starbase pad on future launches, however as soon as once more within the Indian Ocean for Starship’s upcoming mission.
Flight 13 will give SpaceX an opportunity to reveal that descent profile once more utilizing Ship 40, whereas additionally working by the booster and engine points encountered throughout Flight 12. If all goes in accordance with plan, the launch will convey Starship V3 nearer to extra formidable assessments, together with orbital insertion, propellant switch and the restoration of each levels again at Starbase.
