SpaceX is preparing to launch Starship’s thirteenth flight test as early as July 23, 2026. The 90-minute launch window is scheduled to open at 5:45 p.m. Central Time, although the timing could change because of weather, technical conditions or other factors affecting developmental testing.
The mission will continue testing the Starship V3 upper stage and Super Heavy V3 booster introduced during the previous flight. SpaceX will also carry next-generation Starlink V3 satellites aboard Starship for the first time.
Flight 13 is designed to repeat several objectives that SpaceX targeted during Flight 12. These include a complete booster ascent, stage separation, boostback maneuver and controlled landing burn over an offshore location.
SpaceX has modified the booster’s hardware and software to address problems encountered during Flight 12. At stage separation, differences in the startup timing of Starship’s engines caused the Super Heavy booster’s directional flip to be approximately 90 degrees away from its intended orientation.
The company has revised the engine startup sequence to make it more tolerant of timing variations and improve the consistency of the booster’s flip. Achieving the planned orientation is intended to improve performance during the boostback portion of the mission.
Five of Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines experienced problems while attempting to restart for the Flight 12 boostback burn. This caused the maneuver to end earlier than planned.
The Flight 13 booster includes hardware changes intended to improve engine relight reliability. SpaceX has also updated engine alarms and abort procedures to reflect conditions experienced when operating numerous engines simultaneously during flight.
Starship’s upper stage will attempt to deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites. It will also conduct an in-space relight of one Raptor engine before attempting a controlled atmospheric entry, descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
During Flight 12, Starship lost one of its three vacuum-optimized Raptor engines approximately 40 seconds after stage separation. The spacecraft demonstrated its engine-out capability and continued to its planned suborbital trajectory despite the failure.
SpaceX said it has made several propulsion hardware and operational changes to address the interconnected causes of that engine loss. Additional reliability improvements are also planned for future versions of the Raptor engine.
The mission will mark the first time Starlink V3 satellites are carried into space aboard Starship. The next-generation satellites are being developed to increase the Starlink network’s capacity and improve user speeds.
After deployment, the 20 test satellites are expected to extend their solar arrays and antennas and attempt to communicate with the broader Starlink constellation through high-capacity laser links. Because they will remain on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, the satellites are expected to reenter the atmosphere and be destroyed approximately 20 minutes after deployment.
Six satellites will carry cameras positioned to collect imagery of Starship’s heat shield. The images will help SpaceX evaluate techniques for assessing whether the spacecraft’s thermal protection system is ready for future missions involving a return to the launch site.
Several heat-shield tiles have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and provide visible targets for the cameras. SpaceX will use the images to study the condition of the vehicle’s thermal protection system during flight.
Flight 13 will also test several heat-shield upgrades and experimental tile configurations. Tiles will be attached to the metallic side of Starship’s aft flaps, while modified tiles and mounting mechanisms will be installed around the aft skirt.
Load-sensing tiles will measure the forces experienced by the heat shield as Starship encounters higher dynamic pressure during ascent than on previous flights. The increased pressure is intended to support greater payload capacity while placing additional stress on the tile attachment system.
Super Heavy’s boostback burn is scheduled to begin approximately two minutes and 25 seconds after liftoff. Its landing burn is expected to start at approximately six minutes and 27 seconds, followed by a controlled shutdown over the offshore landing area.
Starship is expected to cut off its ascent engines approximately eight minutes after launch. Satellite deployment is scheduled to begin about 16 minutes into the mission, followed by the in-space Raptor relight demonstration at approximately 39 minutes.
Atmospheric entry is expected to begin around 47 minutes after launch. Starship is scheduled to conduct its landing burn and flip maneuver shortly after the one-hour mark before attempting a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
