SpaceX conducts 13th Starship test flight
SpaceX launched Starship on its 13th suborbital test flight July 24, correcting some of the issues seen on the previous flight while deploying functioning satellites for the first time.
Starship lifted off from SpaceX's facility at Starbase, Texas, at 6:51 p.m. Eastern. The launch was delayed 24 hours because of cloudy conditions that would have prevented imaging of the vehicle during its ascent, although SpaceX noted on the webcast that the clouds themselves were not a constraint to launch.
Flight 13 is the second flight of Starship V3, the upgraded version of the vehicle that SpaceX intends to use for future orbital missions, and flew a similar suborbital profile to Flight 12. SpaceX used the launch to test fixes to the vehicle to address issues such as engine failures seen on Flight 12.
As with Flight 12, SpaceX did not attempt to bring the Super Heavy booster back to the launchpad but instead targeted a "soft" splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. However, SpaceX acknowledged that not all of the Raptor engines needed for the landing burn started up, causing the booster to hit the water at a higher speed than planned.
Once in space, the Starship upper stage deployed its payload of 20 Starlink V3 satellites. While some previous flights carried mass simulators of those satellites, this mission carried functioning Starlink V3 satellites for the first time.
The satellites, placed on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, were put through about 20 minutes of tests before reentry, including deployment of solar arrays and antennas as well as communications tests with both ground stations and other Starlink satellites.
"We've successfully communicated with all sats using RF [radio-frequency] and laser links and been able to download key telemetry," SpaceX executive Michael Nicolls said on social media.
After deployment of the Starlink satellites, Starship performed a relight of a Raptor engine lasting about 14 seconds, significantly longer than previous tests.
The Starship upper stage performed a reentry and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean about 65½ minutes after liftoff. While the ship toppled over into the water, it did not immediately explode as was the case on previous flights, instead floating in the water and continuing to return imagery.
"This is the first time we've put an intact Starship in the water," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said on the launch webcast. "This is a dream scenario for the team that's trying to get this heat shield data."
The company first attempted the Flight 13 launch July 16 but aborted the launch immediately after ignition of the engines in the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX later said four of 33 engines in the booster failed to ignite properly because of problems with their liquid oxygen turbopumps, triggering the abort.
Huot said before the launch that an investigation found an "off-nominal spin response" in those turbopumps in six engines linked to moisture that accumulated in the pumps and then froze when it came into contact with the cryogenic propellant, slowing or stopping the turbopumps.
SpaceX replaced the engines and tested them on the pad July 22. One of the Raptor engines that was removed was test-fired at a SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas, and completed a full-duration ascent burn. "Even though we didn't get off the pad last week, we learned about the engines, the prop systems and how they perform in the flight environment," he said.
SpaceX did not immediately disclose its plans for future missions. In an interview in June, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that if Flight 13 went well, the company might attempt the first orbital Starship mission on Flight 14, followed by the first launch of the vehicle from Florida on Flight 15.
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