Overview
- The Federal Aviation Administration cleared SpaceX to fly Starship again on Monday after identifying heat effects on propulsion components and erroneous engine alarm settings as the most probable causes of a May Super Heavy booster failure.
- SpaceX has said the next integrated test could launch in mid‑July, with company statements and reporting pointing to as soon as Thursday, July 16, from its Starbase facility in South Texas.
- Engine and flight‑control changes implemented since Flight 12 include a revised engine startup sequence to fix the booster flip orientation, improved Raptor relight hardware and updated engine alarm and abort logic to reduce false cutoffs.
- The upper stage will carry 20 Starlink V3 test satellites on a suborbital trajectory that SpaceX says will burn up roughly 20 minutes after deployment, and six of those satellites carry cameras to image painted and instrumented heat‑shield tiles.
- Flight 13 is framed as an iterative development step toward full reusability, but SpaceX must still complete final vehicle closeouts, stacking and tanking rehearsals before a firm launch is set and more telemetry will determine recovery and restart success.