Posted on 07/12/2026 4:18:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
This week at Starbase SpaceX has set the date for the launch of Flight 13, Booster 20 performs a full-duration static fire test ahead of it's upcoming launch, and SpaceX releases the next episode in its Starship and Starbase documentary series.
SpaceX To Launch Starship For Its 13th Time This Week! | 6:07
Avid Space | 12,940 views | July 12, 2026
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
The RV-X rocket lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing during its less than one-minute flight at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Noshiro Testing Center in northeastern Japan.Japan space agency's reusable rocket lands safely in first test | 1:05
Associated Press | 76,164 views | July 12, 2026
In the movie based on the real Apollo 13 they joked “13? We’re not superstitious” before the most dangerous Apollo mission in history.
I had a nice lunch and a nice nap, and it's a beautiful day.
“It comes after 12.”
Transcript
The date is set for flight 13 and booster 20 performed a successful static fire test. How is Starbase gearing up for flight? Well, let’s take a look into this week’s Avid Starship and Starbase update and find out.
The time is at hand and workers at Starbase are entering the final crunch ahead of the launch of Flight 13. The current iteration of the Starlink loader, labeled as the V3 speed loader and designed to place Starlink satellites into the ship’s payload fairing, was brought into the Star Factory. Inside, it’ll be loaded with mission simulated payloads. Crews also continued to make progress on the likely Flight 15 vehicle with booster 22’s AF liquid oxygen tank section being moved to Mega Bay 1 for assembly.
Checking things out over at the launch site, work continues to bring pad one up to the Starship V3 standard. The first major sections of the launch payload group support equipment bunker have begun to go in. The GSSE bunker is designed to protect the major pad systems during launch and provides the structural support for the launch table that the Starship stack rests on before launch. Wall sections for the flame trench are being preassembled prior to installation, including this piece which has cutouts for the flame buckets’ water deluge system.
The tower at pad 1 received some significant attention this week with the removal of the end of the Starship quick disconnect arm. During the days of the block one and two vehicles, the arm was reconfigured for the various evolutions of Starship and Superheavy. The limits of those changes were reached with block 3 ships and more extensive modifications are now underway.
Ship 41 is well into the pre-flight process flow ahead of flight 14 with its initial testing campaign successfully completed at the Massie Outpost. The ship was sent back to the build site on Sunday and was taken into Mega Bay 2 to be outfitted for static fire testing. The ship Cryostand was moved out of Sanchez for storage until ship 42 is complete and ready for cryop proofing with booster 20 static fire scheduled.
Now, pad 2’s quick disconnects were extended for a systems test to make sure the fluid and gas systems interfaces were ready to go before closing back up. As for booster 20 itself, the transport stand was brought to Mega Bay 1 on Wednesday night to take the Super Heavy to the launch pad for a static fire test. And 6 hours later, booster 20 was moved out of the bay and brought to the entrance to Highway 4, but stopped short of actually starting the trip. The booster would have to wait another 8 hours before it began rolling out to the launch pad.
Eventually, the Superheavy booster took the 40-minute journey to the launch pad and was staged between the chopsticks for lift. With it now secured to the chopsticks, the tower began lifting it up and over to the launch mount. Final insertion into the mount would have to wait for the winds to calm down as the breeze left the booster wobbling in the armatures. [music] The winds did eventually calm down and booster 20 was successfully lowered into the launch mount where it was secured to the hold down clamps allowing preparations to begin for the static fire testing.
The Federal Aviation Administration has posted notices for flight 13 and SpaceX released a post on X and their website confirming the launch date for July 16th with a launch window opening at 5:45 local time and launch opportunities continuing through the 21st. The launch operations and range safety corridor are the same locations as we saw in flight 12, indicating that the mission will be flying the same trajectory as before with the booster landing in the Gulf and the ship splashing down in the Indian Ocean. If all goes well, this should be the last suborbital flight test of the Starship program.
With a tight schedule and little time before the scheduled flight date, the booster transport stands set out from the launch site in the morning fog before setting up as a roadblock on Highway 4. The powerful pump motors in the tank farm made quick work of the propellant load with Superheavy receiving a full load of liquid oxygen and a partial load of methane in a bit over 30 minutes. The launch team proceeded into the final phase of the operational count with the water deluge system activating, followed by the ignition of booster 20’s 33 Raptor 3 engines for an extended duration burn. The awesome display of Super Heavy’s power lasted for almost 30 seconds before shutting down, shaking the ground with a force of 16 million pounds of thrust.
Despite the incredible forces involved in a launch, the launch mount is designed to support a Starship launch every 60 minutes. The test seems to have gone perfectly and SpaceX announced that the static fire was to full duration. The booster was detanked at the end of the test with the road reopening afterward. After everything was reopened, the operations team began setting up a chopstick landing rail test. The rails were then elevated to the catch position and the arms were set up under the booster’s catch hard points. The rails were then lifted until they pressed into those grid fin catch points, simulating the loads of a catch while testing the functionality of the landing rails.
SpaceX also released the second episode of its Starship documentary program, revealing many details and showing incredible behind-the-scenes footage of flight operations at Starbase. The episode also explained what happened to the chopstick carriage on Tower 2, leading to the skate replacement. These skates’ construction includes bicycle-like chain segments with roller bearings to help the skates glide up and down the tower. One of those links snapped and needed to be replaced. The episode also showed how the quick disconnect arm was jammed by the preload that keeps the panel pressed into the side of the Starship, overloading the hydraulics and jamming the pin. The fix was a simple hard stop to limit how far back the preload could push the arm back into the tower.
While Starbase is in full swing for flight 13, work at the Cape continues to bring the launch pad at Slick 39A into service, while hardware for Slick 37 continues to arrive in Port Canaveral. This hardware included new storage tanks and launch mount segments that were delivered to the space coast by barge for installation at the new complex.
And there you have it, another Starship and Starbase update brought to you by Avid Space. Make sure you tune in for our upcoming spaceflight news update later on in the week. Until then, if you haven’t already, make sure you hit those buttons that keep you updated with all our new content. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you next week.
That title DESPERATELY needs a comma! Or a different word order.
I mean, SpaceX is making great strides, but not THAT great.
Maybe someday? :-)
The Federal Aviation Administration has posted notices for flight 13 and SpaceX released a post on X and their website confirming the launch date for July 16th with a launch window opening at 5:45 local time and launch opportunities continuing through the 21st. <<<
July 16th was the launch date for Apollo 11.
And the birthday of the Atomic Age in 1945.
And world snake day!
https://www.spacex.com/content/starship/critical-path
Oh, yeah.
And astronauts can’t be like building planners who don’t have that floor. Due to triskaidekaphobia.
“The fear of 13 goes back centuries, and when the skyscraper boom began in the late 1800s, developers realized potential tenants and hotel guests were genuinely anxious about living or working on the 13th floor. An Otis Elevator study from 2002 estimated that up to 85% of their elevators did not have a 13th-floor button.”
Elevators skip directly from 12 to 14, or the 13th floor is relabeled as “12A” or “M” (for Mechanical). Structurally, the floor still exists, but it is renamed
Examples: The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, The Woolworth Building, The Flatiron Building, The Waldorf Astoria Hotel and One World Trade Center.
——Planetizen and Wikipedia.
“…Uh, yeah, Ken Mattingly, here, has been doing a little research on that very subject. Haven’t you, Ken?”
“…Er…Yes, Jim…I, uh, had Fred walk under the ladder of the LEM holding a broken mirror while a black cat crossed his path. No discrepancies noted with Fred or in testing the LEM afterward. I think we’re good to go…”
In the meantime....The best you can probably do is throw a ball up in the air and watch it come down. ;-)
They rocketed to the top poking fun at that superstition. 😆The 13th Floor Elevators - Your Gonna Miss Me | 2:30
WBM/Music | 14.6K subscribers | 256,636 views | May 31, 2016
Roky Erickson! Late 70s/early 80s goodness!
Raoul’s didn’t card people back then. 😁
In Chinese the word for the number 4 sounds like the word for Death. So, in HK buildings often have neither a 4th or 13th floor
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