Friday, July 17, 2026

SpaceX aborts Starship Flight 13 at engine ignition

SpaceX

SpaceX's 13th Starship test flight was aborted at T-0 on July 16 just as the Super Heavy booster began lighting its 33 Raptor engines, when four of them failed to ignite and the vehicle's flight computer automatically halted the countdown. The mission - the second flight of the more powerful Version 3 vehicle - was set to attempt the first deployment of Starlink V3 satellites on a suborbital trajectory. Elon Musk said engineers will remove and replace two Raptor engines on the booster before the next attempt, which he said is most likely early the following week.