Replace July 23, 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 UTC): SpaceX waived off a launch try on account of climate; focusing on July 24.
SpaceX will take one other run at launching its Starship-Tremendous Heavy rocket from southern Texas, however not till after Tropical Storm Bertha completed pushing via Texas.
Just like the try one week in the past, a 90-minute launch window will open at 5:45 p.m. CDT (6:45 p.m. EDT / 2245 UTC) on Friday, July 24. The flight comes after days of labor changing and testing a number of Raptor engines on the Tremendous Heavy booster.
Spaceflight Now could have stay protection starting about two hours previous to liftoff.
Moments earlier than the post-ignition abort on Thursday, July 16, on-screen telemetry knowledge confirmed 4 engines that apparently didn’t ignite. Throughout the pre-dawn hours of Friday, July 17, Ship 40 (S40) was de-stacked from Booster 20 (B20) and returned to the manufacturing website at Starbase.
Later that day, SpaceX additionally eliminated B20 and rolled it alongside the almost three trek again to the manufacturing website as effectively. Founder Elon Musk stated that at the least two Raptor engines wanted to be eliminated following the onerous engine cease throughout the launch try.
Following every week of labor, B20 returned to Pad 2 on Tuesday, July 21. The next day, SpaceX loaded it with each liquid oxygen and liquid methane earlier than draining the automobile once more.
“Extra preflight testing on Tremendous Heavy full. Now beginning preparations to launch Starship as quickly as tomorrow, Thursday, July 23,” SpaceX posted on social media following the check’s conclusion. “Climate is presently a big watch merchandise for launch.”
Ship 40 returned the pad on Wednesday, July 22, and was stacked atop Booster 20 that night.
One of many principal aims of this thirteenth check 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 a part of this preliminary check, Starship is deliberate to deploy 20 satellites which can lengthen photo voltaic arrays and antennas and can try to attach with the bigger Starlink constellation through high-capacity lasers,” SpaceX stated on its web site. “The Starlink satellites will likely be on the identical suborbital trajectory as Starship and are anticipated to demise upon reentry roughly 20 minutes after deployment.”
SpaceX additionally plans to carry out a Raptor engine relight following the roughly 11-minute satellite tv for pc deploy sequence. Groups additionally hope that work achieved 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.
Throughout Starship Flight 12 again in Could, SpaceX stated the startup sequence of the engines on Ship 39 “precipitated the directional flip of the booster to be off by roughly 90 levels.” 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 Tremendous Heavy on this upcoming flight has {hardware} modifications to enhance re-ignite reliability together with updates to engine alarms and aborts to match the circumstances seen within the multi-engine flight setting,” the corporate stated.
Different engine enhancements are designed to forestall an early shutdown seen throughout Flight 12 that prevented an engine relight demonstration on that mission.
Work on the higher stage’s warmth protect to assist push it in direction of future, full reusability may even be on show.
“A number of tiles will likely be hooked up to the metallic aspect of Starship’s aft flaps together with modified tiles and attachment mechanisms within the warmth protect masking the aft skirt to collect flight knowledge on completely different attachment choices,” SpaceX stated. “Lastly, Starship’s warmth protect could have load sensing tiles to take measurements because the automobile experiences greater dynamic strain on ascent than earlier flights, placing added stress on the tile attachments in trade for elevated payload to orbit functionality.”
An almost equivalent model of the Starship Model 3 rocket flying as we speak will likely be used on the Artemis 3 mission, which can embody a docking between Starship and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
A brand new report printed by the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) on Thursday seems at a sequence of NASA’s long-term initiatives, together with these concerned with the Artemis Program.
It factors to “a sequence of testing challenges” encountered by SpaceX in relation to the Human Touchdown 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 “greater than a 12 months behind its unique schedule for key occasions,” just like the essential design overview and an uncrewed touchdown demonstration, however improvement of its Raptor engines is described as a “high threat.”
“In accordance with HLS officers, the most recent model of the Raptor engine incorporates enhancements reminiscent of welded gasoline joints designed to forestall the gasoline leaks that resulted within the lack of the Starship automobile throughout flight testing in March 2025,” the report said. “Flight check 12, performed in Could 2026, was the primary flight check of the brand new model of the engine.”
The GAO report famous that NASA officers pushed again on some assessments and said that the report’s evaluation “doesn’t mirror all ongoing programmatic modifications stemming from changes made to the Artemis marketing campaign in February and March 2026.”
“Officers didn’t have any technical corrections on the evaluation,” the report stated.
