SpaceX Prepares Starship Flight 13 With Upgrades and Starlink Deployment

SpaceX plans to launch Starship Flight 13 from Starbase, Texas, as early as July 16 in a 90-minute window to test fixes from Flight 12 and deploy 20 functioning Starlink V3 satellites on a ~65-minute suborbital profile; upgrades include more robust engine relights and revised startup/abort logic, with a South African ground-station link test and a brief postflight reentry. The FAA is still finishing its mishap investigation from Flight 12, and a successful Flight 13 could set the stage for Starship’s first orbital flight and advance Starlink V3 deployment and Artemis lunar mission support.