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Musk: Plans to launch Starship next Thursday (Friday in Beijing time), mainly to test target exposure

On July 11 local time, Musk posted on a social media platform saying that the next Starship launch is scheduled for Thursday (July 17, 6:45 AM Beijing time). This test flight will continue to complete the main objectives set for the previous mission. Previously, the 12th test flight first deployed two new-generation vehicles, Starship V3 and Super Heavy V3. This mission will also, for the first time, carry a new-generation Starlink V3 satellite into space, aiming to increase Starlink network capacity and improve user connection speeds.

In this mission, the main test objectives for the Super Heavy booster include: during stage separation in the 12th test flight, a slight timing difference in when the Starship engines started led the booster to flip in a direction deviating from the expected by about 90 degrees. To address this, SpaceX modified the engine start-up sequence so it can better adapt to timing fluctuations and complete the planned flip action more stably, thereby improving overall flight performance. In addition, after completing separation and the flip, Super Heavy attempted return ignition, but of the 33 engines, 5 showed anomalies during secondary ignition, causing the return ignition to end prematurely. Therefore, this test flight’s booster adds hardware improvements to increase the reliability of engine secondary ignition, and updates engine alarm and abort logic to better match real operating conditions in a multi-engine flight environment.

The Starship upper stage’s main tasks for this flight include: in response to the engine failure seen in the last test flight, SpaceX has also made multiple improvements to the propulsion system. In the 12th test flight, about 40 seconds after stage separation, one of the three vacuum-version Raptor engines on Starship failed. However, the spacecraft still successfully demonstrated fault tolerance after a single-engine failure and entered the planned suborbital flight trajectory as scheduled. SpaceX said the team has optimized hardware and operational procedures for multiple related factors that led to this failure, and future versions of the Raptor engines will further enhance reliability. This flight will also test multiple upgrades and experiments related to Starship’s heat shield system, continuing to move toward its goal of full, rapid reuse. $SPCX ‌