FAA clears SpaceX to launch Starshp/Superheavy; 13th test flight set for July 16th
Starship/Superheavy on the launchpad prior to 12th test flight in May
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today closed out its investigation of the 12th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy and cleared SpaceX to go ahead with the 13th test flight.
In truth what the FAA did was rubberstamp SpaceX’s own investigation into that flight, almost immediately after the company announced on July 11, 2026 that it was targeting July 16, 2026 for launch. The company has now posted a complete description of that investigation and the flight plan for the 13th flight.
First the cause of the failure of Superheavy to successfully return as planned:
At stage separation on Flight 12, slight differences in engine startup on the ship [Starship] caused the directional flip of the booster to be off by approximately 90 degrees. The startup sequence has been modified to be more robust to timing variability and more reliably flip in the desired direction, which is done to increase overall performance.
After stage separation and the flip, the Super Heavy booster attempted its boostback burn. Five of its 33 engines experienced issues when attempting to re-light causing the boostback burn to end early. The Super Heavy on this upcoming flight has hardware modifications to improve re-light reliability along with updates to engine alarms and aborts to match the conditions seen in the multi-engine flight environment.
In addition, hardware changes were made to the engines on Starship, addressing the failure of several to light during flight 12.
The 13th test flight will once again follow the low orbital path used in the past few flights that will bring it down in the Indian Ocean. A relight of a Raptor-3 engine in orbit will once again be on the schedule. Starship will also deploy for the first time 20 actual Starlink satellites, rather than dummy prototypes. Six will be outfitted with cameras to observe Starship’s heat shield as it and the satellites de-orbit.
Finally, the ship will do more tests of its heat shield and tiles during re-entry.
If all goes well, this will lay the groundwork for the first full orbital flight on the next launch, likely to occur about a month or so later.
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I have a question for those who might know better than me.
I have found out that Space X is using phased array antennas on all its satellites and ground links. Yes their flat sat link is actually ,essentially, a phased array radar panel.
Could the Satellite antenna be turned into down look radar systems?
Could the flat panel uplinks be turned into cheap short range radar panels?
Maybe just a hardware addition and some nifty programing?
And could the US Military have just ordered a MTI Radar system from SpaceX? For 4 billion dollars?
But I expect that will be an actual dedicated moving target indicator radar unit, but who knows? Best part is no part, right?
I used to work in a plant that manufactured the radar panels for the tests.
I was surprised at just how simple it was.
I didn’t know the exact details but it was simple to make but hard to make perfect.
pzatchok asked: “Could the Satellite antenna be turned into down look radar systems?”
Phased arrays can be and are used for radars, so the short answer is: yes, Starlink could conceivably do this. It may require additional hardware and software as well as regulatory permissions. Depending upon what you want to track with such radars, there may be power requirements that the Starlink satellites cannot provide or that the current arrays cannot transmit.
“Could the flat panel uplinks be turned into cheap short range radar panels?”
Conceivably, yes, but with similar changes and permissions. The radio spectrum is already crowded, after only a century of use, and interference with other users is a serious problem.
“”In truth, what the FAA did was rubberstamp SpaceX’s own investigation into that flight””
Soooooooooo much better than the Biden Regime.
Flight 12 launched May 22nd. The Biden Regime used to re-type the SpaceX report, and apparently only used their thumbs to re-type. Months and months would go by.
My question is on the Starlink satellites: I assume that with this being a sub-orbital hop they simply lack the delta V to stay up very long. Will they try to use internal propulsion what time they have in space? Heck of a shakedown cruise for them.
My guess is that this is, as you say, a shake down flight, with several purposes. One is to test the deployment system in Starship, this time with real satellites. Second is to use some of these Starlink satellites to photograph Starship as it descends to see how its thermal tiles hold up.
Third is to test these version 3 satellites in space to see how they function.
Regardless, just like Starship their orbit is low enough that atmospheric drag will bring them down over the Indian Ocean.
Robert,
My expectation is that the satellites will only be able to observe the heat shield tiles before atmospheric interface. I think that the satellites will have a hard time staying with Starship once the atmosphere starts affecting them on descent. The satellites will have different drag forces than Starship has.
Seeing which tiles have come off before reentry could be a good datapoint for SpaceX, because so far they have only been able to see departing tiles while Starship is still near the pad and then again after reentry. Getting datapoints after launch but before reentry gives them more information about what affects the tiles and their ability to hang on for dear life.
I think the plan is much more than that. The V3 sats need to wake up, extend solar arrays and connect to the greater constellation. SpaceX has been building these guys for a few years. There are a lot more of them in storage than available launch opportunities. Use a few as a proof of concept and they work…..
Interesting that they are discarded. Great that this is the first flight of operational V3 sats. Cheers –