Watching the 13th orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy
Starship/Superheavy at T-4:00 minutes on July 16th.
Click for source.
Now that SpaceX has confirmed the launch date for the 13th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy for July 20, 2026 July 23, 2026, with a 90-minute launch window beginning at 5:45 pm (Central), it is time to provide my readers with the many ways they can watch the launch. I have embedded several live streams below. When SpaceX makes its own live stream available I will add it here as well.
The flight plan remains the same as last week, a low orbit that will bring the ship down in the Indian Ocean. The main goals are to test the Raptor-3 engines, bring Superheavy back as planned, relight a Raptor-3 engine in orbit, and test the ship’ thermal tile system during re-entry. In addition, the company will attempt to deploy 20 actual Starlink satellites rather than dummies.
The NASASpaceFlight feed:
The Everyday Astronaut feed, live at about 4 pm (Eastern):
[Not yet available. Will be added when active.]
The Space Affairs feed, which is simply the SpaceX feed with no additional commentary:
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UPDATE. SpaceX has now changed the launch to Thursday 13 July.
I think the target launch date is actually Thursday, July 23.
I think the target launch date is actually this coming Thursday, July 23.
Yeah, SpaceX did a quick change. I have updated the posts.
Thank you posting links to these feeds, I’m looking forward to checking them out. Another one y’all might enjoy is with Felix at WhatAboutIt YouTube channel.
It would have been cool if launch had been successful *last* Thursday, on the 57th anniversary of Apollo 11 launch. Fingers crossed, prayers offered.
I made the trek to Boca Chica from central Florida for the launch last week, my first visit to Starbase. 22 hours on the road each way.
Got some great footage of what reminded me of Prom night. :)
No regrets, got to do a drive by of Starbase, saw more Teslas per square mile than just about anywhere, met some fun people, and learned SE Texas cicadas are a powerful offset to tinnitus.
Weather for Friday shows a tropical storm over top of BC. I bet they really want to get it off first.
I strongly suspect it will. I have a conflicting medical appointment on the 23rd. Thus far, I have a perfect record such that whenever a medical appointment conflicts with a SpaceX launch, the launch always goes up on schedule. My little sacrifice for the cause.