SpaceX's 13th Starship flight will attempt first Starlink V3 deployment and in-space engine relight

SpaceX is preparing for the 13th full-scale test flight of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket, with a launch window that opens on Thursday, 16 July at 5:45 pm CDT (22:45 UTC) from the company's Starbase facility in Texas. The flight will carry 20 genuine Starlink V3 broadband satellites, marking the first time the vehicle has flown with an operational payload rather than mass simulators.

From simulation to operational payload

Earlier Starship missions tested the payload deployment mechanism with mass-and-dimension dummies. For Flight 13, technicians have loaded 20 Starlink V3s into the ship's deployer, a pulley-and-cable system that ejects the satellites one at a time through a side opening. The units will not join the operational constellation, but SpaceX engineers plan to attempt laser communication links with other low-Earth-orbit spacecraft. If those links succeed, they will validate V3 interoperability with the previous Starlink generation. Some of the satellites also carry cameras to scan Starship's heat shield and return imagery to ground teams.

Regaining clearance after May's anomaly

The US Federal Aviation Administration cleared the launch on Monday 13 July after SpaceX and the regulator identified the probable cause of the Super Heavy landing failure during the May flight. According to an FAA statement, heat effects on propulsion-system components interfered with the engine-alarm system, preventing the intended engine relight and causing the booster to fall uncontrolled into the ocean. SpaceX says it has made several hardware and software changes, including a more robust Raptor start-up sequence, modifications to Super Heavy hardware, updates to engine alarms and abort logic, and propulsion-system changes on the upper stage.

Mission profile and new maneuvers

This hour-long suborbital flight will arc from Texas halfway around the world to a splashdown zone northwest of Australia. The flight plan includes the first in-space relight of a single Raptor engine on the Starship upper stage. After deployment, the 20 Starlink satellites will have just enough time to extend their solar arrays and antennas, attempt to connect with ground stations in South Africa while passing more than 100 miles overhead, and then burn up on reentry. The booster recovery sequence targets a controlled landing at a point in the Gulf of America.

Los objetivos principales incluyen el reencendido de un motor Raptor en el espacio y una entrada, descenso y amerizaje controlados en el Océano Índico.

Iterating toward reusability

Beyond the Starlink deployment, SpaceX plans to gather data on heat-shield performance. Multiple tiles have been placed on the metallic side of Starship's aft fins for the first time, part of a wider effort to collect flight data and iterate toward a fully reusable, rapidly re-launchable design.

The imagery will allow ground teams to continue testing methods of analyzing Starship's heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions.

The company has described the flight as the second using the newest Starship version and the 13th full-scale test overall, with each outing progressively expanding the vehicle's capabilities and moving closer to an operational launch cadence.