SpaceX Plans July 16 Test Launch of Uncrewed Starship from Texas

SpaceX is targeting July 16, 2026, for the launch of its Starship rocket from Starbase in Texas. The 90-minute window opens at 5:45 p.m. CT. The flight will be the second for the Version 3 Starship vehicle, which stands 407 feet tall.

It follows Flight 12 on May 22, 2026, the first Starship mission of the year. During that test the booster performed a water landing in the Gulf of America while the upper stage reached the Indian Ocean, landed, and exploded after deploying 20 mock Starlink satellites and two modified satellites that imaged the vehicle. Flight 13 will carry 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites.

Six of them include cameras to photograph the heat shield. Some tiles on the vehicle have been painted white to simulate missing tiles. The satellites will burn up in the atmosphere about 20 minutes after deployment.

Neither the booster nor the upper stage will be recovered. The Federal Aviation Administration closed its investigation into the Flight 12 mishap with no reports of public injury or damage to public property. The agency accepted SpaceX's findings and corrective actions.

Flight 13 will use Booster 20 and Ship 40, both equipped with Raptor 3 engines. SpaceX is under contract with NASA to develop a Human Landing System version of Starship for the Artemis III mission scheduled for 2027. The company completed its initial public offering on June 12, 2026, which valued it at $1.75 trillion.