SpaceX launching Starship Flight 13 Thursday to fix technical hiccups
SpaceX is getting ready to launch Starship Flight 13 this Thursday, July 16, with liftoff expected sometime after 6:45pm EDT.
This is the second outing for its upgraded Starship version 3, and the main goal is to fix the technical hiccups from the last flight.
If you're curious, you can catch all the action live on SpaceX's site and social media: streaming starts half an hour before launch.
Stage separation and 20 Starlink deployments
Flight 13 aims to pull off a smooth stage separation and safely splash down both rocket stages.
The mission will also deploy 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites designed to boost internet speed and capacity, even though these particular satellites won't stay in orbit long due to the flight path.
To avoid past issues, SpaceX has tweaked engine startup sequences and added reliability upgrades for a better shot at success.