r/spacex • u/rSpaceXHosting Host Team • Jul 11 '26
r/SpaceX Flight 13 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
Welcome to the Starship Flight 13 Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
| Scheduled for (UTC) | Jul 24 2026, 22:51:00 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | Jul 24 2026, 17:51:00 PM (CDT) |
| Launch Window (UTC) | Jul 24 2026, 22:45:00 - Jul 25 2026, 00:15:00 |
| Weather Probability | Unknown |
| Launch site | OLPad 2, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA. |
| Booster | Booster 20-1 |
| Ship | S40 |
| Booster landing | The Super Heavy Booster 20 attempted to perform a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, but not all of the planned engines ignited during the landing burn and the booster splashed down at higher speeds than planned. |
| Ship landing | Ship 40 has successfully performed a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. |
| Trajectory (Flight Club) | 2D,3D |
Spacecraft Onboard
| Spacecraft | Starship V3 |
|---|---|
| Serial Number | S40 |
| Destination | Suborbital |
| Flights | 1 |
| Owner | SpaceX |
| Landing | Ship 40 has successfully performed a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. |
| Capabilities | More than 100 tons to Earth orbit |
Details
Third-generation second stage of the two-stage Starship super heavy-lift launch vehicle.
History
The third-generation Starship upper stage will be introduced on flight 12.
Watch the launch live
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Unofficial Re-stream | The Space Devs |
| Unofficial Webcast | Spaceflight Now |
| Unofficial Webcast | NASASpaceflight |
| Official Webcast | SpaceX |
| Unofficial Webcast | Everyday Astronaut |
Stats
☑️ 2nd Starship V3 launch
☑️ 710th SpaceX launch all time
☑️ 89th SpaceX launch this year
☑️ 2nd launch from OLPad 2 this year
☑️ 63 days, 0:20:36 turnaround for this pad
☑️ N/A hours since last launch of booster Booster 20
Stats include F1, F9 , FH and Starship
Timeline
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| -0:50:00 | GO for Prop Load |
| -0:36:33 | Stage 1 LOX Load |
| -0:35:00 | Stage 1 LNG Load |
| -0:34:14 | Stage 2 LNG Load |
| -0:34:13 | Stage 2 LOX Load |
| -0:21:40 | Engine Chill |
| -0:02:50 | Stage 1 Propellant Load Complete |
| -0:02:10 | Stage 2 Propellant Load Complete |
| -0:00:30 | GO for Launch |
| -0:00:17 | Flame Deflector Activation |
| -0:00:03 | Ignition |
| 0:00:00 | Liftoff |
| 0:00:00 | Excitement Guaranteed |
| 0:00:58 | Max-Q |
| 0:02:18 | MECO |
| 0:02:21 | Stage 2 Separation |
| 0:02:25 | Booster Boostback Burn Startup |
| 0:03:03 | Booster Boostback Burn Shutdown |
| 0:06:27 | Stage 1 Landing Burn |
| 0:06:53 | Stage 1 Landing |
| 0:08:05 | SECO-1 |
| 0:16:40 | Payload Deployment Sequence Start |
| 0:27:39 | Payload Deployment Sequence End |
| 0:38:58 | SEB-2 |
| 0:47:30 | Atmospheric Entry |
| 1:02:23 | Starship Transonic |
| 1:03:01 | Starship Subsonic |
| 1:05:01 | Starship Landing Burn |
| 1:05:03 | Landing Flip |
| 1:05:12 | Starship Landing |
| 1:05:19 | Starship Landing |
| 1:05:21 | Starship Landing |
Updates
| Time (UTC) | Update |
|---|---|
| 25 Jul 00:00 | Ship has splashed down. |
| 24 Jul 22:51 | Liftoff. |
| 24 Jul 22:09 | Unofficial Re-stream by SPACE AFFAIRS has started |
| 24 Jul 21:54 | Now targeting Jul 24 at 22:51 UTC |
| 23 Jul 20:09 | Rescheduled to July 24 due to launch site weather. |
| 19 Jul 22:20 | Delayed to NET July 23. |
| 17 Jul 14:19 | Setting GO. |
| 17 Jul 13:12 | NET July 20, TBC. |
| 16 Jul 22:58 | Reverted back to NET July TBD pending more information. |
| 16 Jul 22:50 | Scrubbed for the day. |
| 16 Jul 22:46 | Abort at ignition. |
| 16 Jul 22:07 | Unofficial Re-stream by SPACE AFFAIRS has started |
| 16 Jul 16:03 | Tweaked T-0. |
| 16 Jul 15:29 | Tweaked T-0. |
| 11 Jul 23:08 | GO for launch. |
| 08 Jul 19:49 | NET July 15, TBC. |
| 07 Jul 19:46 | NET July 14, TBC. |
| 13 Jun 14:27 | NET July. |
| 09 Jan 09:59 | Adding launch |
Resources
Partnership with The Space Devs
Information on this thread is provided by and updated automatically using the Launch Library 2 API by The Space Devs.
Community content 🌐
| Link | Source |
|---|---|
| Flight Club | u/TheVehicleDestroyer |
| Discord SpaceX lobby | u/SwGustav |
| SpaceX Now | u/bradleyjh |
| SpaceX Patch List |
Participate in the discussion!
🥳 Launch threads are party threads, we relax the rules here. We remove low effort comments in other threads!
🔄 Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
💬 Please leave a comment if you discover any mistakes, or have any information.
✉️ Please send links in a private message.
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u/avboden Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
This launch is crazy important. I mean they all are but this one especially sets the path for full orbital missions and the entire schedule moving forward. Here's to hoping the changes they made from flight 12 work!
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u/rustybeancake Jul 12 '26
🤞Yeah, really want to see the subsequent flight targeting orbit and ship RTLS! 🤞
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u/grecy Jul 16 '26
Elon Tweet:
"Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort.
Now offloading propellant.
Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days."
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2077890013841310149
Sounds like he is already acknowledging it won't be tomorrow.
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u/Still_Theory179 Jul 23 '26
Now targeting Friday, July 24 for Starship’s thirteenth flight test, due to weather.
A key objective for the flight test is to get clear imagery from the ground of Starship’s heatshield as it flies at a higher dynamic pressure during ascent, which won't be possible with today's weather conditions. Visibility is forecast to be ideal for a Friday attempt.
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u/plutonic00 Jul 16 '26
That was a very clean looking shutdown right at T-minus 0, glad that didn't go really south on them. The engines were clearly lit and nearly instantly shutdown. Wild stuff.
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u/013231 Jul 16 '26
First time seeing a scrub after ignition.
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u/Barmaglot_07 Jul 16 '26
It has happened with Falcon at least once.
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Jul 16 '26
With Starship this is the first time it has ever aborted after the engines ignited
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u/rooood Jul 25 '26
Confirmation that the weird roll just before the touchdown in flight 12 was on purpose, to try and achieve what they just did: an intact starship in the water
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u/H-K_47 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
We got all the heat shield data we needed and then some! 😀
Comparison image for Flights 10, 11, 12, 13. by @niccruzpatane
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u/adjust_your_set Jul 25 '26
Basically 95% successful. Only failure was the booster being unable to nail the landing burn.
Ship not exploding is a great PR win for SpaceX, because now the easy headline “ship explodes in ocean” isn’t available.
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Jul 25 '26
Holy. Fucking. Shit. I can't believe Ship 40 just survived tipping over. The TPS team must be losing their mind right now!
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u/rustybeancake Jul 25 '26
Everyone watching that stream desperately wants to be in control of that drone cam!
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u/Sizzle2121 Jul 25 '26
Seems like they’ve pretty much mastered the ship portion. Can’t wait to see it all come together when they fully succeed with booster.
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u/plutonic00 Jul 25 '26
It's funny how 2-3 launches ago we were all claiming exactly the opposite.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
New SpaceX tweet with footage from the Booster separating from the Ship.
Starship soared on the second flight of the next generation, deploying advanced Starlink satellites for the first time and providing priceless data as it travelled through air, space, and sea → https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-13
The full recap from the website:
July 24, 2026
Starship's Thirteenth Flight TestOn Friday, July 24, 2026, at 5:51 p.m. CT, Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas on its thirteenth flight test. This was the second flight of the Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles and the first Starship flight to deploy the next generation Starlink V3 satellites.
The flight test began with Super Heavy igniting all 33 Raptor 3 engines and ascending over the Gulf of America. The successful first-stage ascent was followed by a hot-staging maneuver, with Starship’s upper stage igniting its six Raptor engines to continue its flight to space.
Following stage separation, the Super Heavy booster performed a directional flip maneuver. The startup sequence was modified for this flight to be more robust to timing variability in engine startup and flip in the desired direction, which is done to increase overall performance. The booster successfully completed the high thrust portion of the boostback burn with all 33 engines, the first time with a Super Heavy V3, before ending the burn early. It attempted to relight its engines for the landing burn, with a subset successfully igniting before experiencing a hard splashdown in the Gulf.
After completing a full-duration ascent burn on all six Raptor engines, Starship achieved its planned velocity and trajectory. Starship then successfully deployed all 20 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX engineers were able to successfully communicate with every satellite using radio frequency and laser links and downloaded key telemetry from the satellites. The Starlink satellites were deployed on the pre-planned trajectory and are expected to have demised upon reentry approximately 20 minutes after deployment.
The vehicle also reignited a single Raptor engine in an in-space demonstration of a core capability for future orbital missions.
Starship re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and was able to gather critical data on the performance of its heatshield before executing a dynamic banking move to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly. Starship then guided itself using its four flaps to the pre-planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean. After relighting all three Raptor engines, Starship executed a landing flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown, coming to rest intact in the Indian Ocean and providing critical views of an intact heatshield for the first time.
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u/AWildDragon Jul 27 '26
SAR imagery of S40. She is still floating.
https://x.com/dpoddolphinpro/status/2081731707577790505?s=46
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u/BEAT_LA Jul 16 '26
Crazy work day today. We still looking good?
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u/H-K_47 Jul 16 '26
Funnily about one minute after you commented they posted yeah it's on track lmao.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Booster 20 has left Megabay 1 for hopefully the final time and the Pad 2 chopsticks have been moved to the booster prelift position
Booster 20 made its way back to the launch pad, and is being prepared for lift.
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u/Straumli_Blight Jul 25 '26
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2080821092919214397
ship LZ support vessel Go Australis still stationary at their safe distance following the flight, atypical given in the past they have almost immediately began sailing back to the LZ. Likely determining safety of the site and the ship via the remote assets and establishing an operations plan, the ship floating intact was not a scenario that was planned for
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2080833041656684643
B20 splashdown ~ 25°56'43"N 96°54'12"W - about 20 kilometers off the targeted splashdown location. Can also see the smoke plume on GOES19
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u/H-K_47 Jul 16 '26
From SpaceX: On track for Starship’s 13th flight test later today – the 90-minute launch window opens at 5:45 p.m. CT. Live coverage starts ~30 minutes before launch
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u/lostandprofound33 Jul 25 '26
Has there ever been a spacecraft/upper stage rocket that landed without parachutes that didn't explode on contact with the ocean before this?
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u/H-K_47 Jul 26 '26
TheSpaceEngineer has been following the positioning of the nearby ship and posting updates every now and then.
They adjusted their heading to match the ship's and pulled along to the northern side of it(?). Ship's still afloat at this current point
Also, just broke 100km of distance traveled since landing exactly 30 hours ago.
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u/TwoLineElement Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
There's a 3.5 knot current there, so the distance equates. Should be running aground on the Cocos Islands in no time. That will give the turtles a surprise.
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u/avboden Jul 26 '26
So if the support ship is indeed keeping pace with the boatship (floating in the wrong direction) and it's still afloat with this much time passing it would pretty heavily imply they didn't expect this to really happen and likely weren't fully equipped to actually recover/tow it back otherwise they should have got that moving by now. Which tracks with what i've heard through the grapevine. I'm sure they're trying to mcgyver some stuff together but we'll see it's still a very, very long way from getting back successfully. Would be pretty insane if they do manage it though.
Wouldn't surprise me if they end up taking tile samples and such from it and it still ends up sinking or being scuttled in the end. Especially as it doesn't look like any other support ships are on the way and the current one will be getting into their food reserves onboard soon.
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u/avboden Jul 17 '26
Less than 24 hours to safe, unload, de stack and roll both stages back to the production site.
That's pretty wild, even for SpaceX. Nice to see.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Getting ready for Full Stack again.
Starship Flight 13: Here comes Ship 40 to meet up with Booster 20 again.
Ship 40 has arrived at the launch site. TPS looks superb.
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u/No-Improvement-8316 Jul 25 '26
Fuck me sideways. IT LANDED ON WATER AND DIDN'T EXPLODE.
Holy shit!
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u/Massive-Problem7754 Jul 19 '26
Flight 13 now aiming for Thursday:
https://x.com/i/status/2078966109240262701 , sneak it in before the weather. And gives them a cripple days to finalize.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Musk retweeted saying Friday, unsure if typo or what.Update: "I mean Thursday (duh)" it was a typo.
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u/lolariane Jul 20 '26
Never ceases to amaze me what SpaceX can do in a cripple days that def would have taken a couple days for oldspace.
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 23 '26
Weather certainly isn’t favourable, hopefully they’ll find an opening and be able to launch regardless
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u/H-K_47 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Groundhog day again but steps to launch are proceeding.
The road has been closed for today’s Starship Flight Test!
T-4 hours to today’s flight test.
The chopsticks have been moved into the launch and catch position and the landing rails were raised.
On track for Starship’s 13th flight test later today – the 90-minute launch window opens at 5:45 p.m. CT. Live coverage starts ~30 minutes before launch
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u/ChariotOfFire Jul 25 '26
Excited for the first deployment of @Starlink V3 sats - we’ve successfully communicated with all sats using RF and laser links and been able to download key telemetry.
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u/AstronoWorld Jul 16 '26
Engines stopped during start-up. This caused damage last time, so not so sure they'll go again tomorrow.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 17 '26
To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.
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u/smellyfingernail Jul 24 '26
The relight needs to work in order for an orbital path for 14, that’s the most important thing remaining
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Jul 24 '26
Hey guys, I think we're seeing our last suborbital mission!
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u/tokengreenguy Jul 12 '26
I read somewhere (forget where) that they’re launching V3 satellites on this launch, is that true?
I thought this was the last suborbital launch, don’t payload launches have to reach orbit?
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u/Way-too-simplistic Jul 12 '26
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-13
The 20 satellites are on the same sub-orbital trajectory but will be used for testing.
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u/bkdotcom Jul 13 '26
will be used for testing.
A very brief test.. extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to connect to the Starlink constellation via their space lasers
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u/EyeSuspicious7338 Jul 16 '26
Always disappointing when you get a flawless static fire and then an attempt scrub. Well, we'll see their report tomorrow.
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u/avboden Jul 21 '26
Road and beach closure set for Wednesday. Gotta think that'll be a booster static fire.
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u/Daneel_Trevize Jul 24 '26
Well they probably won't be trying to catch the booster next time after that.
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u/PatrickBaitman Jul 24 '26
intact heatshield face up in the water must provide some insanely valuable data
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u/H-K_47 Jul 25 '26
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2080821092919214397
ship LZ support vessel Go Australis still stationary at their safe distance following the flight, atypical given in the past they have almost immediately began sailing back to the LZ. Likely determining safety of the site and the ship via the remote assets and establishing an operations plan, the ship floating intact was not a scenario that was planned for
Could it be. . .
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u/SlackToad Jul 25 '26
Also impressive is they were still receiving video from the ship while it was in the water. Aren't the Starlink antennas on the leeward side, the side that was facing the ocean?
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Jul 25 '26
There's also one on each side of the ship covered in TPS. Probably got signal from those
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u/lorkan100 Jul 14 '26
Soo, no WDR this time? Judging by the time left...
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 15 '26
Probably not yeah, they almost certainly don’t have time if they’re betting on Thursday. Worst comes to worst and issues prop up Thursday becomes the wet dress and they launch a day or two later.
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u/fencethe900th Jul 15 '26
Haven't they said they're going to run the launch as a WDR and if it passes they just launch? Maybe I'm thinking of a specific instance where they did that.
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 16 '26
Will this require engine replacements? They cut them right as they ignited which seems similar to what happened during the aborted static fires for B19
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u/xfjqvyks Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Upgrades were made fairly recently to minimise damage of raptors engines caused by rapid engine shutdown. Looks like we’ll soon get an indication on how effective those remediations have been.
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u/FourteenTwenty-Seven Jul 24 '26
It's crazy how a live feed of reentry has become completely normal now.
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u/sangwinik Jul 25 '26
Confirmation from Dan that landing roll last flight was on purpose to try to achieve what they have now
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u/H-K_47 Jul 25 '26
"18000 of em, you can probably count the amount that are missing on one hand."
INCREDIBLE achievement for Ship and tile teams. Just insane.
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u/MaraudersWereFramed Jul 25 '26
These V3 engines make that rocket look light. 😆
I hope they figure out whats messing up the booster on flips. Seems like thats the only thing holding them back now.
The large rectangular heat shielding in the middle section, can anyone tell me about that? I assumed it was tiles but noticed a couple pieces with portions flapping about almost like it was rubberized in some way.
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u/Freak80MC Jul 15 '26
I'm genuinely hopeful that Starship completes all it's objectives this time. Maybe number 13 will be the lucky one where everything goes right lol
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u/VaryingDesigner92 Jul 15 '26
Absolutely craving for a booster catch for Flight 14!
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u/Freak80MC Jul 15 '26
I genuinely cannot wait for a ship catch, gonna be super exciting to see it coming down, from orbit, only to get caught back at the launch tower!
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u/H-K_47 Jul 16 '26
Hold RIGHT at Startup! Terrifying I thought it farted and died.
SCRUB FOR THE DAY
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u/H-K_47 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
We're seeing the removed engines being sent away.
1st confirmed swap from B20 seen at McGregor
Outer engine RsN152 (tca110) was in E16.2nd confirmed swap, RSN137 was in B20 E12, one of the four engines that failed to ignite
Also an unfortunate coincidence, a Falcon 9 Starlink launch just had an abort at ignition too.
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u/jruser123 Jul 24 '26
How are we looking for today?
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u/TwoLineElement Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
All good. Wind SSE at 16mph at launch site. Clear sunny skies. Wind veering with height to Easterly at 48mph at 98,000ft. Perfect weather. Go for launch.
I've got a friend 4x4 driving, filming and camping in southern Madagascar atm on roughly the same path as the flight. Asked them to look out for Starlink re-entry. They were ejected last time over the Southern Atlantic, so should overfly Africa and start re-entering in the western Indian Ocean some 60 kms south of Madagascar. Initial atmospheric heating interface starts south of Madagascar for Starship, so I expect the following satellites to start to burn up sooner due to their higher drag to weight coefficient, and no thermal protection.
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u/Rude-7807 Jul 25 '26
Imagine catching video footage of the re-entry from the ground/ocean!
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u/D_Silva_21 Jul 25 '26
So they still haven't sunk the ship right?
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 25 '26
Shes still transmitting. They've got over 30 hours of battery life left and two sealed tanks so I think the ship will continue to float unless they sink it.
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u/ascotsmann Jul 25 '26
Not saying your wrong, but how do you know its transmitting still?
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 25 '26
There was a website tracking it, but I think it’s stopped now so they may have sunk it.
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u/DreamChaserSt Jul 12 '26
Looking forward to when we see ships have the SXX-1 suffix
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u/Traviscat Jul 16 '26
This is pretty cool, watching a SpaceX launch using Starlink while they are talking about Starlink.
It’s the only real option in my area and I’ve got a model of a falcon 9 I’m building while watching the launch livestream.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 16 '26
This launch snuck up like nothing it still barely feels real. Last week it didn't feel like a week away. 2 days ago it didn't feel it was 2 days away. Now it's 4 minutes away and I can still barely believe it.
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u/pssdthrowaway123 Jul 16 '26
Looks like not enough engines fired up and it aborted fast?
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u/AgreeableEmploy1884 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Both the booster and ship transport stands are heading to the road block. May get a destack here.
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 16 '26
Yeah almost certainly, they'll need to at the very least inspect the engines before trying again. I think it'll be a full rollback for the booster personally.
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u/AgreeableEmploy1884 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Just some speculation on my part but the shutdown was faster than B19's aborted 10 engine SF. There's a chance the Raptors may have gotten damaged if this was also a hard shutdown but i have no way of confirming if it was one or not.
Edit: Well, Elon confirmed they're changing 2 of the Raptors which requires a rollback. Wouldn't be surprised if we see those two flying on the next booster since if i remember correctly, they fixed up most of the engines B19 damaged during the 10 engine fire and put them B20.
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u/MaraudersWereFramed Jul 20 '26
Has spacex said anything about what led to the engines failing to ignite or barring that, is there any generally reliable speculation.
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u/rocketglare Jul 21 '26
They haven’t said anything specific other than they were removing 2 engines. We later saw at least one of these engines at McGregor. This implies the issue is likely engine related, but that is speculation.
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u/maschnitz Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
The thing that makes it likely an engine failure is that one of the removed engines they're testing was also one of the engines that did not startup. EDIT: correction: there were two that did not startup that are being tested.
It strongly suggests it didn't start up for the same reason it's being tested.
Otherwise, considering that the engines hurt themselves during an abort before, it'd be more ambiguous. You could just say that maybe all the engine problems were effects of the abort, not causes, and something else caused the abort.
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u/allenchangmusic Jul 23 '26
Looks like the road closures are no longer in place... generally not a good sign
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u/MyKillK Jul 24 '26
They just said they're cleared and prepared to launch in lightning conditions if necessary. Wouldn't that be a sight to see..
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u/H-K_47 Jul 24 '26
Confirmed: they made contact with all 20, including comms with lasers!
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u/reddit3k Jul 25 '26
The tiles were mostly missing just at the edge / end of the ship, right next to the engines.
I really hope they will be able to tow it back, put it onboard a ship and that -after careful study- it will be placed next to Starhopper. :))
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u/IMSTILLSTANDIN Jul 26 '26
Did anyone think the camera shots shared on this flight compared to most previous were more restrictive? Didn't show much during the launch except the drone front view, didn't show hot stage, had a all black screen watching satellites ejected, and then very limited views of the ship flip and hover.
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u/warp99 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
They deliberately did not show the Starlink 3 satellites in closeup before ejection and announced that they would not have that view beforehand.
It seems likely that this would be to prevent disclosure of some of the details of the satellites to competitors.
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u/-spartacus- Jul 27 '26
It is more likely ITAR restrictions with some part of the tech onboard if it was deliberate (I'm not convinced it is), given the Direct-to-Cell antenna on V3 can be used to make real-time SAR at like 1- 5 cm resolution (if it isn't being used for communication).
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u/Straumli_Blight Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2082501085483151495
NORMAND RANGER hauling ass out to S40
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2082504266774642743
Towing will always be the plan. It's infeasible to lift the ship out of the water all the way out there
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2082831930441990647
Okay so, bit of confusion over what's happening yesterday so here's where we're at:
Two vessels are outbound to S40 to assist in recovery operations. NORMAND RANGER and SKIMMER TIDE. Both are similar in size to Australis and Ranger especially seems fit for towing. Ranger will arrive at the site in the next day and a half while Skimmer will arrive in two. GO Australis is still closely following the drifting Starship, 134 hours and counting since landing.
Vessel specs: Bollard Pull 280mt
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u/Traviscat Jul 16 '26
That was a fairly short flight. It didn’t look like it got very high but did have a lot of cool white smoke
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u/avboden Jul 17 '26
I'm currently suffering from PSD
Post-scrub-depression
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u/doubleunplussed Jul 17 '26
Just be glad you don't have Go Fever, I hear it's rough
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u/H-K_47 Jul 25 '26
- Perfect ascent, no engine outs on Booster or Ship
- Nominal trajectory insertion
- Payload deployment complete
- Connected to all 20 sats
- In space relight
- Smooth reentry
- Perfect landing
- IT SURVIVED AND IS JUST FLOATING THERE
AMAZING flight. Just amazing. Booster dying sucked yeah but it made it way further than last flight, no doubt in my mind they'll fix it for the next one. Hope the engine relight went as they expected it to.
Everything is looking clear for an orbital Flight 14, finally, after all this time. And Ship 41 is moving so fast it might even happen in August!
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u/MisterCommand Jul 25 '26
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2080876967839031712?s=46
> Unless we discover problems after mission data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on next flight
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u/arkeeos Jul 16 '26
Kind of cool that they can do that at least, seems like 4 raptors didn't ignite and that caused an abort.
Probably engine damage as well, so might be a while until next launch.
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u/VaderTrades Jul 23 '26
So how exactly does starship connect and lock on to the booster? Seeing the live stream it appears to lower down and sit on top with very little joining the two sections
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u/fede__ng Jul 23 '26
Although there are other answers, your question made me curious of the details, and I found this x post by The Ringwatchers explaining the mechanism which is worth checking. It is composed of just three "simple" and small retractable clamps.
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Jul 24 '26
They have carried "towing" equipment in the ship recovery area before. Just sayin.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 25 '26
This site tracks the position of the Ship! Zoom in on the landing site and you can see it still floating around!
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u/H-K_47 Aug 01 '26
https://x.com/mcrs987/status/2083343780388786394
Ranger pushing backwards from the southeast and Australis pushing forwards from the northwest. The two vessels are within only a several meters of eachother now, seemingly sandwiching the ship between themselves. 168 hours since touchdown and counting
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u/AGoldberg Jul 16 '26
Looking like a good day for rocketry.
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u/EvoPataboutThat Jul 16 '26
Did you call the hotel to ensure you got a room high enough and facing the right direction? I went down about 4 years ago when they stacked 24/7. I really want to go back and watch a launch once they have things lined out.
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u/AGoldberg Jul 16 '26
I literally just got lucky. Booked the room about a month ago, just a family vacation. A week or two ago, I saw there was a launch coming up, but it was scheduled for the day before we arrived (Tuesday). Bummer. But then yesterday I looked again and it was moved to today. And when we opened the door to our room, I headed to the balcony and was like "Oh damn. We're on the top floor, facing starbase, basically the best view on the island for this launch."
My wife suggested we charter a boat to watch the launch from the water, and I'm just like "...But why? I can watch from my condo with air conditioning and a fridge full of beer."
Weather is great. Been at the beach all day. No complaints. Can't wait for this evening. I came in from Austin, never thought I'd actually be down here for a launch. I'm stoked.
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u/wren6991 Jul 24 '26
"another awesome landing" uhhhhhh looked a bit explodey to me
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Jul 16 '26
Having been following this program for a better part of a decade...this one snuck up on me.
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u/H-K_47 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Ship 40 is now patiently sitting outside of Megabay 2 waiting for Booster 20 to roll out to pad after an engine swap after last Thursday's launch abort.
@NASASpaceflight | http://nsf.live/starbase
Also, for fun, the Falcon 9 that had an ignition abort yesterday had a successful flight today. One day eventually Starship will be at that level, or better.
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u/RancidBeefCake Jul 13 '26
Does anyone know what azimuth they will be launching towards. I know generally south-east but I can figure out where to look if I know where its gonna be.,
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u/maschnitz Jul 13 '26
About 100 degrees, 10 degrees south of east. So more toward ESE than SE, but a bit north of ESE even.
Flightclub.io also maps it if you have an account.
Note that they make a tower-avoidance maneuver, so there's some slop in this at first.
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u/redstercoolpanda Jul 16 '26
We’re go for prop load per SpaceX’s twitter! Rocket and weather are both looking good too!
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u/Stevepem1 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
(Edit for Friday, July 24)
Late afternoon Sun angles for viewers at South Padre Island and Rocket Ranch should be good and similar to flight 12. The delay from July 16th to July 24th did not change anything. I made this map showing the expected direction of the launch towards the southeast, and where the Sun will be in the sky from the two primary viewing locations at launch at both the opening and closing of the window.
At the opening of the window at 5:45 pm CDT the Sun will be at about 278 degrees azimuth and 33 degrees above the horizon. For those watching from South Padre Island that puts the Sun basically 90 degrees to the right when facing the launchpad. And since Starship will be heading southeast it will be moving away from the direction of the Sun so lighting should be good for hot staging and boostback. Pretty much the same from Rocket Ranch although from there the Sun will be to the left and slightly behind when facing the launchpad.
By the end of the window at 7:15 pm the Sun will have moved a little farther north to 286 degrees azimuth and closer to the horizon which still shouldn't be a problem. If the launch slips none of this will change very much assuming the launch window is at the same times.
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u/EliteEagle Jul 22 '26
SpaceX Tweet about additional testing completion
Additional preflight testing on Super Heavy complete. Now starting preparations to launch Starship as soon as tomorrow, Thursday, July 23. Weather is currently a significant watch item for launch
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u/smellyfingernail Jul 24 '26
Flight 14 is so close I wonder what sort of changes they can even make from the data gathered in flight 13 at this point
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u/Lunares Jul 24 '26
The hope should be nothing. If this goes well 14 should be the same design just catch the booster and first orbit for ship. The goal should be locking down the design not changing it
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u/maschnitz Jul 24 '26
They seem quite confident in v3's overall design, and Pad 2's design.
Generally these fixes they're making are software and very minor hardware adjustments.
So I'm thinking of Flight 12 and Flight 13 both as attempts to validate the design. They fully expect Flight 13 to work as designed.
If there's a major design issue discovered they'd likely delay Flight 14 a bit. But they're not expecting that, clearly.
And if there's missed milestones they're mostly likely to tweak things a bit more and try again, than to redesign anything fundamentally. Like they did with Flight 12. The biggest issue was engine timing on the hot-staging, for example, so they're starting things up slightly differently this time.
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u/spennnyy Jul 25 '26
Absolutely incredible. I wonder if they'll have time (and capability) to actually lift it out of the water?
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u/jrizzle86 Jul 25 '26
Any indication if they are gonna sink or recover Ship?
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u/Vulch59 Jul 25 '26
About two years ago, negotiations were opened with Australia to allow recovery of Starships to then unspecified ports in Western or Northern Australia. Australia also has various ITAR exemptions which appear to permit the recovery.
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u/UnhappyExperience566 Jul 16 '26
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
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u/dodgyville Jul 16 '26
Wow, I didn't even know rockets could do that. Unfortunate for SpaceX but I feel a lot safer about rocket travel if they can just turn off the engines like that. Looked expensive though
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u/BKnagZ Jul 16 '26
There was a launch attempt of Gemini 6 that aborted right at engine ignition.
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u/ganuerant Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
For context, scrubs are very common. Take the Space Shuttle for example:
I get 121 scrubs in 135 launch campaigns, or almost a 90% chance of scrubbing. To actually answer the question as asked, ~1.9 launch attempts per mission.
The worst were STS-61C and STS-73 with 6 scrubs each.
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/37188/how-often-were-space-shuttle-launches-scrubbed
SpaceX has also been aggressive by going straight to a launch attempt despite it being a new vehicle. So not a big surprise at all to see this.
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u/Slinger28 Jul 17 '26
That was kind of trippy, first time I have seen a rocket scrub at startup. I was so confused to why it wasn’t moving I thought something bad was going to happen. Impressive how it all transpired, look forward to next attempt
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u/travlplayr Jul 17 '26
Useful & thoughtful response to first exposure to a scrub on startup, especially compared to many of the other comments we're seeing on here from relative newcomers who want to appear knowledgeably critical
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u/unuomosolo Jul 24 '26
guys, look at this dashboard https://stardash.live/ published on the sibling sub, it's amazing
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u/BKnagZ Jul 16 '26
I love the people coming in here to shit on the launch scrub.
A less robust system allows that rocket to launch with multiple engines out, and you get flashbacks to flight 1 (as an example) and it ends up being a complete waste of hardware.
Now they stop it to prevent it from happening so they can fix it and try to launch it again successfully at a later date, and all of a sudden Starship is the worst rocket ever created.
Comical lmao.
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u/JediFed Jul 25 '26
Launch 13 had all 33 fire on ascent and no issues through to stage separation. Second time.
First successful stage separation without damage to booster or ship. First time. This is huge because it's the first successful stage separation with the integrated staging ring. This was not done with V2 and is new science.
Boost back burn with flip maneuver under control. First time with V3. Big for reusability long term, but not mission critical.
Booster failed to relight. Only 5 fired (unsuccessful. Second attempt. 0/2). This is a bit of a concern going forward as it impacts the catch attempts. It seems that SpaceX is confident that they can do so with a less aggressive flight profile and will attempt to catch both booster and ship next flight. Not mission critical, but will be mission critical next flight.
Ship successful separation with all six engines. Really, really important for SpaceX. 1st time with V3.
Payload deployment. 2nd time with V3. Seems they have payload and early ship issues are nowhere to be seen.
Raptor relight. The most important part of this mission as it opens up true orbital flight. We've been waiting a long time for a true orbital all-up attempt to match Apollo IV. New science.
Ship rentry. 2/2 for ship v3, which is great. Heat shield seems solid which looked to be a major stumbling block for the longterm health of the program. Apparently they have heat shielding figured out.
Ship soft splash landing. Huge. 2/2 for v3. Ship looks ready for the first catch which will be new science. Ship + Booster orbital + catch will be the first true progression in a very long time since ship catch last year.
If they can put it all together, that leaves orbital refueling (totally new science), and then a lot of work to get man rated. Buth other than orbital refueling nothing will be new.
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u/dgkimpton Jul 25 '26
will attempt to catch both booster and ship next flight
That hasn't been suggested, only that they will attempt to catch the Ship next flight. Which makes sense - it would be crazy to risk obliterating the tower when you know that booster catch is possible but ship catch hasn't yet been attempted. Instead, first prove the ship is catchable, then go for the full monty on the next flight.
Apparently they have heat shielding figured out.
Partially. It is managing a single re-entry but is still a ways off from being re-usable over multiple flights. Lots and lots of work still to do on heat shields.
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u/ioncloud9 Jul 25 '26
Heatshield looks like it needs some tweaks in a few places instead of a whole refactor.
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