SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 test launch was aborted at the last second on July 16, ending what would have been the second flight of the upgraded Version 3 megarocket.
What Happened
The attempt occurred at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT) from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas, right at the beginning of a 90-minute launch window. An abort was triggered just as the giant vehicle's first-stage Super Heavy engines began firing. 'We'll take some time, dig into what triggered that abort once the booster was igniting to launch, and then we'll figure out what our path forward is going to be,' SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during the company's launch webcast. Flight 13 carried a payload of 20 next-generation Starlink V3 internet satellites, six equipped with cameras to image Starship's heat shield.
Why It Matters
Flight 13 was set to continue testing Starship V3 after Flight 12 on May 22 encountered partial setbacks. That earlier mission saw Super Heavy fail to steer itself back for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico as planned, and the Ship upper stage couldn't relight one of its Raptor engines in space. The Starlink V3 satellites aboard Flight 13 were slated to be the first-ever next-gen spacecraft deployed from Starship; SpaceX aims eventually to build a constellation of 100,000 V3 satellites using the megarocket.
The Bottom Line
SpaceX has not announced when it will attempt another launch for Flight 13. The company says it will analyze what caused the abort during engine ignition before setting a new date.