SpaceX is preparing for Starship's 13th test flight as early as Thursday from Starbase, Texas, with a launch window opening at 5:45 pm CDT. The 400-foot-tall rocket, powered by 33 Raptor engines on its Super Heavy booster, will carry 20 functioning Starlink V3 satellites—marking the first time real satellites replace mass simulators.

The hour-long suborbital trajectory will arc halfway around the world to a splashdown in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. Engineers will test laser communication links between the V3 satellites and existing Starlink spacecraft, while six satellites carry cameras to image Starship's heat shield during nighttime reentry. A full Starship stack of V3 satellites could eventually add 60 Tbps of network capacity per launch.

This flight repeats two objectives missed in May's Flight 12: a Raptor engine restart in vacuum and a controlled Super Heavy booster splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The previous Raptor shutdown and booster flip anomaly prompted hardware and software fixes. Success would position SpaceX for orbital flights, in-orbit refueling demos, and eventual NASA Artemis Moon landings.