SpaceX readies Starship for another try. Watch it live

SpaceX readies Starship for its 13th test flight on Thursday, July 23, 2026, from Starbase in South Texas, pending weather. After a scrubbed July 16 try and a rough May flight, the company aims to prove booster separation, ocean splashdowns, and satellite deployment. SpaceX will stream the launch on its website and X as early as 5:15 p.m. CT.

Key Takeaways

• SpaceX is targeting July 23, 2026, for Starship's 13th flight test from Starbase, Texas, if weather cooperates.
• A July 16 attempt was scrubbed after some engines failed to start, triggering an abort, Elon Musk said on X.
• Flight 13 follows May's Flight 12, which saw a botched flip and several engine-restart failures.
• Goals include clean booster separation, Gulf of Mexico booster splashdown, Indian Ocean ship splashdown, and deploying 20 Starlink V3 satellites.
• SpaceX says it will livestream the South Texas launch on its website and on X, with coverage expected as early as 5:15 p.m. CT.

Why does another Starship attempt matter now?

SpaceX readies Starship for another try because the vehicle is still proving the basics of reuse under real flight stress. Officials describe the campaign as turning the most powerful rocket ever built into a reusable workhorse that can haul heavy cargo, survive fiery returns, support NASA moon landings, and eventually advance Elon Musk's Mars ambitions.

That long game is why each scrub and each partial success still draw a global audience. For readers who follow space history on our Nostalgia: Then & Now hub, Flight 13 is a classic then-and-now moment: yesterday's dramatic failures become today's engineering checklist.

According to Mashable's launch preview, SpaceX says it is ready to fly again after last week's abort, though weather could still foul the plan.

What went wrong on the road to Flight 13?

The path to Thursday's window is short and bumpy. After a rough try in May, SpaceX scrubbed a launch last week on July 16. Musk said some of the engines did not start, which triggered an abort.

Those setbacks sit on top of Flight 12's unfinished business. Mashable reports that the 12th flight featured a botched flip and several engine-restarting failures. The modifications for Flight 13 follow that drama: teams changed how engines light and tweaked the landing sequence that sends the ship into the Indian Ocean.

In other words, the "then" is a messy spring and a scrubbed mid-July countdown. The "now" is a vehicle SpaceX believes is ready enough to try again—without pretending the risks have vanished.

What will Starship try to prove on Flight 13?

Once Starship gets off the ground, the test has a clear shopping list. As previously reported by Mashable, the flight will seek to prove the booster can separate cleanly from the ship in the air, swing around the right way, fire its engines again, and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ship side of the plan is just as ambitious. Starship will try to deploy 20 satellites, then attempt to restart a single engine while coasting—a skill SpaceX says it will need for future missions that change course or head to the moon. The cargo includes Starlink V3 internet satellites.

Together, those objectives bridge near-term Starlink work and longer-horizon NASA and Mars goals. Success would not end the test campaign, but it would mark another step from spectacle toward routine heavy lift.

How can you watch the Starship livestream today?

SpaceX says it will stream the South Texas launch on its website and on X, the social platform owned by Musk. The broadcast is expected to start as early as 5:15 p.m. CT. If delays occur, the company will provide updates on X.

While waiting for ignition, viewers can watch SpaceX's short documentary "Critical Path." The film follows engineers and pad crews through the final days leading up to the previous flight. In the film, Musk does not say much, but launch leaders stress caution over calendar pressure.

"The thing that separates us from a lot of other companies is that we test fast and we test often, and that includes launches," said Tim Southerton, director of Starship launch engineering, in SpaceX's latest mini documentary. "We want to make sure the vehicle's all ready to go. We want to make sure the ground's all ready to go, but we also don't want to be caught in analysis paralysis."

Justin Styer, SpaceX's senior Starship launch director, struck a similar note: he said he has never felt pressure from Musk to fly "hell or high water," adding that "the critical path to Mars is not blowing up rockets."

Then and now: how does Flight 13 fit the bigger story?

Spaceflight nostalgia is usually about grainy Apollo footage or early shuttle landings. Starship's present tense is different: livestreams, rapid retests, and public aborts when engines refuse to light. Flight 13 sits in that modern tradition—transparent enough to watch from a phone, consequential enough that NASA and Mars timelines still hang on the data.

Thursday's attempt will not rewrite history by itself. It will, however, show whether the May fixes and the July 16 abort lessons hold when the clock starts again. Weather remains a wild card, and SpaceX has already shown it will scrub rather than force a bad start.

If you are tuning in for the fireworks, remember the quieter through-line. SpaceX readies Starship for another try because reusable heavy lift is still being earned flight by flight—and because today's livestream is tomorrow's archive of how that work actually looked.