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Starship stacks for Flight 13 with Ship 40 and Booster 20
SpaceX has stacked Ship 40 atop Booster 20 ahead of Starship Flight 13, with a 90-minute launch window opening July 16 at 17:45 local time.
Image: iXBT
Roughly 19 hours before liftoff, SpaceX has assembled what the source describes as the world’s largest rocket on the pad for the 13th Starship flight. According to NASASpaceflight, Ship 40 has been delivered to the launch site and successfully stacked with Booster 20 using the Mechazilla arms.
Earlier, Super Heavy Booster 20 completed a full static fire of all 33 Raptor engines on July 10. Ship 40 also completed a 60-second test of its 6 engines. The mission will mark the second flight of the fully new V3 version after Flight 12, featuring larger tank volume, updated engines, and other improvements.
A 90-minute launch window at Starbase, Texas is set to open on July 16 at 17:45 local time (01:45 on July 17 Moscow time).
The main goals for Flight 13 are:
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- successful stage separation
- payload deployment
- an in-space relight of Ship 40's engines
- return of both the booster and the ship for soft landings in the gulf
The payload will include Starlink V3 satellites. The report says the satellites will follow the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, meaning they will not remain in orbit and are expected to re-enter and burn up later during the mission.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via iXBT
