When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Credit: SpaceXSpaceX is targeting this week for the next launch of its massive Starship vehicle.Following engine tests on both Starship stages in the last two weeks — igniting all six Raptor 3s on the “Ship” upper stage and all 33 Raptor 3s on the “Super Heavy” first stage — SpaceX is proceeding with the launch of Starship Flight 13, which is scheduled for no earlier than Thursday (July 16), according to a July 11 SpaceX social media post.AdvertisementAdvertisementIt will be the second launch for Starship “Version 3” (V3), a bigger, more powerful upgrade from previous Starship designs, and will come a little less than two months after Ship ran into a bit of trouble during Flight 12 but also managed to pull off some firsts. One of the spacecraft’s three vacuum-optimized Raptors was lost 40 seconds after stage separation, but it still reached its designated suborbital trajectory, demonstrating its “engine out” capabilities, according to the SpaceX update. The loss did, however, prevent Ship’s in-space engine relight attempt. SpaceX traced the failure to “interconnected causes” and has introduced a number of fixes for the upcoming Flight 13, “with additional reliability improvements planned in upcoming versions of the Raptor engine.”Flight 12 also featured the first deployment of two of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites equipped with cameras for inspecting Ship’s heatshield tiles and exterior conditions while in space. They were deployed with several Starlink V3 mass simulators, a payload that’s getting an upgrade of its own for Flight 13.SpaceX conducts a static fire test with Ship 40, the upper-stage spacecraft slated to fly Starship’s 13th test flight. | Credit: SpaceXStowed inside Ship’s payload bay for Flight 13 are the first functional Starlink V3 satellites that Starship will deliver to space. SpaceX plans to eventually launch perhaps 100,000 of the upgraded version of its internet satellite constellation spacecraft, which it says will increase the capacity and speed of its wireless network services. SpaceX is including 20 Starlink V3 satellites aboard Flight 13, which will be released for functionality testing while in space. Six of those will be outfitted with cameras for the same type of heatshield inspection performed during Flight 12. Ultimately, due to Starship’s suborbital trajectory on this launch, all of these satellites are expected to burn up in mission page, profile on X and here on Space.com.If everything goes smoothly, it’s very likely that SpaceX will attempt the first Starship V3 recovery back at its Starbase, Texas, launch site for either Super Heavy or both stages on the following mission, Flight 14, but there are a number of other technical achievements Starship has left on its checklist before the vehicle can become fully operational. Those include launching into a stable orbit, demonstrating successful rendezvous and docking with other spacecraft, and conquering the technological hurdle of transferring and maintaining cryogenic fuels for long-term use in …
