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Starship tries again with engine fixes and 20 satellites
SpaceX could launch Starship Flight 13 on July 16 with new engine changes, a revised flip maneuver, and its first payload of 20 real satellites.
Image: Mashable
After a rough test flight in May, SpaceX is preparing to fly Starship again — this time with engine fixes, a reworked flip maneuver, and new heat-shield tests on the vehicle’s 13th test flight.
The company is targeting Thursday, July 16, with liftoff possible as early as 5:45 p.m. CT from South Texas. SpaceX says it will stream the launch on its website and on X, with coverage expected to begin about 30 minutes before launch.
This flight is meant to address problems from Flight 12, including a failed flip maneuver and several engine relight issues. Engineers want the Super Heavy booster to separate cleanly, turn into the correct orientation, restart its engines, and make a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship itself is set to splash down in the Indian Ocean after an updated landing sequence.
Starship is also carrying a real payload for the first time on this test profile: 20 Starlink V3 internet satellites instead of dummy cargo. Some of those satellites include cameras and sensors designed to collect data on the rocket’s heat shield during reentry. The satellites are not intended to remain in orbit; SpaceX says they will follow Starship’s short trajectory and burn up in the atmosphere about 20 minutes after separation.
During the mission, Starship will also attempt to restart a single engine while coasting in space, a capability SpaceX says it will need for future missions that adjust course or travel to the moon.
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In SpaceX’s short documentary Critical Path, Tim Southerton, the company’s director of Starship launch engineering, described the company’s approach this way:
“The thing that separates us from a lot of other companies is that we test fast and we test often, and that includes launches. We want to make sure the vehicle’s all ready to go. We want to make sure the ground’s all ready to go, but we also don’t want to be caught in analysis paralysis.”
The documentary follows engineers and pad crews through the final days before the previous flight, including aborted countdowns, a tower arm that would not retract, and a massive tower chain that had to be replaced in roughly 1.5 days.
Justin Styer, SpaceX’s senior Starship launch director, also pushed back on the idea that Elon Musk pressures teams to launch at all costs.
“I personally have never felt any pressure from Elon of like, 'It doesn’t matter, hell or high water, we’re flying this rocket.' Like, absolutely not. That’s not his style. And, like I said, the critical path to Mars is not blowing up rockets.”
As usual for Starship, the timing could still slip because of weather, high winds, boats entering the safety zone, or hardware issues such as a faulty valve. If it flies on schedule, Flight 13 will be another step in SpaceX’s effort to turn Starship from a dramatic test vehicle into a reusable rocket for heavy cargo, NASA moon missions, and eventually Mars.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via Mashable
