SpaceX's Starship 13th Test Flight Plans to Deploy 20 Starlink V3 Satellites

en.Wedoany.com Reported - SpaceX officially announced that the 13th integrated flight test (IFT-13) of Starship will take place as early as July 16 local time at Starbase in Texas, USA. This test flight will continue to achieve the main objectives set in the previous mission and will, for the first time, carry the next-generation Starlink V3 satellites into space.

During the 12th test flight, SpaceX debuted two new vehicles, Starship V3 and Super Heavy V3, but the mission encountered issues such as the booster deviating from its intended flip direction during stage separation and anomalies in some engines during the second ignition. In response to these failures, SpaceX implemented multiple improvements to the booster's hardware and software, including modifying the engine startup sequence and adding hardware enhancements to increase the reliability of the second ignition.

In this flight, the main test objectives for the Super Heavy booster are to complete launch, ascent, stage separation, and return ignition. The Starship upper stage's mission includes deploying 20 Starlink V3 satellites for the first time and reigniting one Raptor engine in space. Additionally, this test flight will verify several upgrades and experiments related to the Starship thermal protection system, continuing to advance the goal of achieving full and rapid reusability of the Starship system.