Starship Flight 13: Potentially the final Suborbital Flight

Date:
Thu, 16 Jul 2026 02:43:59 +0000

Description:
Just about two months after the first Block 3 Starship flight with Booster 19 and The post Starship Flight 13: Potentially the final Suborbital Flight appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Just about two months after the first Block 3 Starship flight with Booster
19 and Ship 39, SpaceX is set to launch Flight 13 with Booster 20 and Ship
40, as soon as Thursday, July 16, at 5:45 pm CDT. While this flight is more
or less a repeat of Flight 12, there are differences as SpaceX attempts to push the Starship program towards orbit.







Flight 12 Recap

Flight 12 with Booster 19 and Ship 39 lifted off on May 22 and immediately had all 33 engines running during ascent. Then, nearly two minutes into the ascent burn, a single Raptor 3 engine shut down for an unknown reason. Even with a single engine out, the booster completed its ascent burn.

Then, during hot staging and stage separation, Booster 19 was flipped 90 degrees the wrong way, which caused several issues during the flip and
relight of the Raptor engines. This led to several Raptors having energetic events, and the entire boost-back burn being shut down very early. Booster 19 would then glide down, attempt a landing burn, but ultimately blow up before hitting the water. Flight 12 Liftoff (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

Ship 39 continued its ascent burn, and at about 40 seconds after stage separation, a single Raptor Vacuum engine would shut down. The ship would
then demonstrate its engine-out capability and complete the ascent burn, reaching its planned suborbital trajectory.

Ship 39 would then deploy its 22 satellites, which included two Dodger Dogs, which were Starlink V2 minis modified to fit with the pez and have cameras
and flashlights attached. These two satellites would then take pictures of
the ships heat shield before burning up behind the ship during reentry.
Likely due to the engine out on ascent, SpaceX opted not to perform the in-space burn of one of the Raptor 3 sea-level engines. Views of Starship in space from a @Starlink satellite pic.twitter.com/5hfw1n8v1o

SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 22, 2026



The ship would then perform a near-flawless reentry and dynamic banking maneuver before splashing down in the Indian Ocean right on target. While Booster 19 and Ship 39 had their issues, the vehicles performed very well for being the first flight of Block 3 of Starship. It was also the first flight from Pad 2, which had barely been touched after Flight 12 lifted off, validating the new design.

Booster 20

The vehicles for this flight are Booster 20 and Ship 40, both of which have undergone changes and upgrades based on additional testing and flight data.

First off, Booster 20 has a few noticeable changes on the outside. The forward dome of Booster has additional steel heat-shield protection used during hot staging. Another noticeable change is the addition of a doubler over a seam weld just below the common dome on the quick disconnect side of the booster. This doubler is in the exact same spot where B18.3 crumpled during its first can crusher test on January 20, 2026. STARSHIP FLIGHT 12 MISHAP INVESTIGATION CLOSED AND FLIGHT 13 GREEN LIGHT GIVEN

The SpaceX-led Starship Flight 12 mishap investigation has now been closed, and the FAA has given the green light for SpaceX to proceed with Flight 13 operations, provided all safety and other pic.twitter.com/mn5Gu9qSus

Jake (Max-Q) (@J_A_Rees_94) July 13, 2026



Other upgrades are intended to address the failed boost-back burn, which prompted a mishap investigation. This mishap investigation has since been closed, and states that the most likely causes for the failure were heat effects on engine components during ascent and erroneous engine alarm system settings. To fix these issues, hardware mods were made to improve relight reliability, along with engine alarms and aborts to match conditions observed in the multi-engine flight environment.

With these upgrades, Booster 20 has a much better chance of making it past the boost-back burn and, hopefully, completing a successful landing burn.

Ship 40

The only major visual differences on Ship 40 are some heat shielding and a pair of new directional vents on the sides of the Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank. Otherwise, upgrades were made to address issues during stage separation and ascent. See Also SpaceX Starship Program L2 SpaceX Section NSF Store Click here to Join L2

To help prevent issues during booster flips, the engine startup sequence has been modified to introduce greater timing variability, more reliably flipping the booster in the desired direction.

There were also several software and hardware changes made to prevent the Raptor Vacuum engine failure that occurred during ascent on Flight 12.

The heat shield will also feature several experiments, including
leeward-side tile patches on the tank walls and on the aft flaps to test different attachment methods. The aft skirt of the ship will also feature modified tiles and attachment mechanisms. Across the heat shield, there will also be load-sensing tiles, which will help gather data during ascent, as
this flight will experience higher dynamic pressures than previous flights.

Lastly, tiles will be painted white to simulate missing tiles for the Starlink V3 satellites to photograph.

Mission Objectives, Trajectory, Timeline, and Launch Windows

The mission objectives for Flight 13 are mostly the same as those for Flight 12. However, there are a few changes and additions; the booster will perform
a more aggressive ascent burn after Max Q, which will be tested with load-sensing heat shield tiles on the ship, and the ship will deploy actual
V3 Starlink satellites rather than mass simulators and the two dodger dogs from Flight 12.

The trajectory is the same as the last flight, with the stack heading south of Cuba and still set to land in the Indian Ocean. However, there are a few timeline changes during preflight and in-flight. Flight 13 Prelaunch Timeline (Credit: SpaceX)

For Flight 12, SpaceX began propellant loading of the stack at T-00:38:53, with Ship LOX loading for Flight 13 now starting at T-00:37:30, resulting in fueling that is now 1 minute and 23 seconds faster overall. So the total fueling time is now down to 35 minutes and 20 seconds; this also means the other times were adjusted accordingly to make the fueling faster.

During flight, Max Q now occurs 13 seconds later, but Most Engines Cutoff (MECO) occurs 4 seconds sooner; this shows that SpaceX isnt going to throttle down as much after Max Q to see how well the stack holds up. Flight 13 Flight Timeline (Credit: SpaceX)

With MECO occurring sooner during ascent, all other timeline points are slightly changed as well. At T+00:16:40 is set as the payload deployment time for the 20 Starlink V3 satellites. This will be the first time this version
of Starlink will fly.

Six of these Starlinks will be fitted with lights and cameras to look at Ship 40s heat shield before reentry. All of the Starlinks will also deploy their solar arrays and antennas to test newer hardware and will attempt to connect with the larger Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers.

The launch window is currently 90 minutes, starting at 5:45 pm CDT on Thursday, July 16. There are several backup dates with marine and airspace notices for July 17 through July 21. Currently, the road closure starts at 12:00 pm CDT and lasts until 8:30 PM CDT.

If this flight goes well, Flight 13 may be the final suborbital flight for a long time, as SpaceX is likely to push for orbit on Flight 14.

(Lead image via Max Evans for NSF).



The post Starship Flight 13: Potentially the final Suborbital Flight appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/07/starship-flight-13-flight/


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