Update for 12:15 p.m. ET on July 20: SpaceX is now targeting Monday (July 23) for the launch of Starship Flight 13, during a 90-minute window that opens at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT).

Starship wasn't quite ready to fly today (July 16).

SpaceX tried to launch the Starship megarocket on its 13th test flight today but couldn't quite pull it off. Something went wrong just as the giant vehicle's 33 first-stage Raptor engines started to fire up, and an abort was triggered.

"We'll take some time, dig into what triggered that abort once the booster was igniting to launch, and then we'll figure out what our path forward is going to be," SpaceX's Dan Huot said during the company's launch webcast today.

It didn't take long for SpaceX to narrow in on the root cause and address it.

"To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week," company founder and CEO Elon Musk said this evening via X, the social media platform he owns.

Starship Flight 13 will fly from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. Today's attempt occurred at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT; 5:45 p.m. local time), right at the beginning of a 90-minute launch window.

Flight 13 will be the second test launch of Starship Version 3 (V3), an upgraded variant of the megarocket designed to get it up to operational status.

V3's first jaunt, Flight 12 on May 22, was mostly successful, but there were a few issues. For example, Starship's Super Heavy first stage didn't steer itself back for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico as planned, and the Ship upper stage wasn't able to relight one of its Raptor engines in space.

Starship V3 will get a second chance on Flight 13, whose goals are similar to those of Flight 12: Get Super Heavy down on target in the Gulf and send Ship most of the way around the world, for a controlled splashdown of its own off the coast of Western Australia. (Ship pulled that off on Flight 12.)

There are a few new objectives, however.

The most notable is the payload suite flying on Flight 13 — 20 of SpaceX's next-gen Starlink V3 internet satellites. The company wants to build a constellation of 100,000 Starlink V3 spacecraft in low Earth orbit using Starship, and Flight 13 will mark the satellites' first-ever trip to space.

They won't stay up there, however; the spacecraft will be deployed on Ship's suborbital trajectory and will crash back to Earth after about 20 minutes, according to SpaceX.

Six of the 20 Starlinks going up on Flight 13 will be equipped with cameras, to image Ship's heat shield. SpaceX did this with a couple of V2 Starlinks on Flight 12 as well.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 9:38 p.m. ET on July 16 with information from an Elon Musk X post.

Starship is about to take to the skies on a bold new test flight of the world's most powerful rocket.

After several days of testing, SpaceX has stacked and readied its massive Starship rocket for its 13th test flight. The company tried to launch on Thursday (July 16), but that attempt was aborted at the last second. SpaceX is now targeting Thursday (July 23), during a 90-minute launch window that opens at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT), from pad 2 at SpaceX's facility in Starbase, Texas.

Both stages had been in their respective Starbase hangars for final checkouts following successful engine tests. Booster 40, the Super Heavy first stage launching on Starship Flight 13, was returned to the pad on Wednesday (July 15). Ship 40, the mission's upper-stage spacecraft, was rolled from the hangar beginning on Wednesday evening. The rocket was stacked overnight, according to a SpaceX post on X, and now awaits prelaunch procedures ahead of the beginning of Flight 13's launch countdown.

Flight 13 will launch the second "Version 3" (V3) Starship, a new iteration featuring extensive design upgrades to help mature the rocket toward clearing the vehicle for official operation. Compared to its Version 2 predecessor, V3 is taller, carries more propellant, and has lost significant mass around its engine section due to upgraded avionics systems. V3 is also equipped with 33 of SpaceX's upgraded Raptor 3 engines on Super Heavy, and another six (three sea-level, three vacuum-optimized) Raptor 3s on Ship.

Starship is designed for full reusability, with both Super Heavy and Ship capable of returning to their launch site for landing and refurbishment, which means making sure there's enough fuel in the tank to make the journey back. One critical upgrade for Starship V3 involves the propellant transfer docking ports that have been added to Ship's dorsal side (opposite the heat-shield tiles on its belly, or ventral side). Ship uses the majority of its fuel getting to space and will therefore require propellant transfers from various refueling flights in order to fly beyond low Earth orbit.

NASA is eyeing the development progress of Starship very closely, with a vested interest in the spacecraft's yet-unproven ability to transfer and maintain the types of cryogenic fuels that power its Raptor 3s. NASA has contracted SpaceX to design a lunar lander version of Starship to return astronauts to the moon as a part of the agency's Artemis program, and effectively managing its onboard propellants is one of the requirements on NASA's checklist to certify the vehicle to fly with crews.

SpaceX plans to complete such a demonstration later this year in preparation for Artemis III, targeted for mid-to-late 2027, which will fly a crew of four aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft to dock with Ship in Earth orbit ahead of the program's first moon landing mission on Artemis IV in 2028. NASA contracted Blue Origin's Blue Moon spacecraft as an additional Artemis lander, which will also launch to Earth orbit for docking operations with Orion during Artemis III.

Starship's readiness to fly those future missions will largely be determined by the rocket's performance on Flight 13, and its subsequent test launches in the coming months. The launch aims to smooth over a few rough patches that the vehicle ran into during V3's debut on the mostly successful Flight 12, which occurred on May 22. Those hiccups included Super Heavy failing to steer itself back to Earth for a controlled splashdown and Ship not relighting one of its Raptor engines in space as planned.

If all goes according to plan on Flight 13, Super Heavy will perform a boostback burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Ship will carry on with a suborbital trajectory, and is expected to release 20 Starlink V3 satellites — the first of the upgraded Starlinks to fly to space. Six of those spacecraft are equipped with cameras to inspect Ship's heat-shield tiles during flight. The satellites, though, will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Ship, and are expected to burn up during reentry through Earth's atmosphere. Ship is scheduled to perform a landing burn and soft splashdown of its own a little more than an hour after liftoff, and will meet a watery demise in the Indian Ocean.

Live coverage of Starship Flight 13 will begin about 30 minutes prior to liftoff, and can be streamed here on Space.com or directly on SpaceX's website and social media channels.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:15 p.m. ET on July 17 with the new target launch date of July 20, then again at 12:15 p.m. ET on July 20 with the new target date of July 23.

The first-ever launch of SpaceX's upgraded Starship rocket is about a month away, CEO Elon Musk says.

The company has been prepping "Version 3" of Starship for a while now, and is targeting early April for the rocket's debut test launch, which will be the 12th overall for the Starship program. "Starship V3 first flight in about 4 weeks," Musk said in a March 7 post on X.

The V3 upgrade makes significant changes to Starship's Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage. Both are slightly taller than their predecessors and produce stronger, more efficient thrust using SpaceX's upgraded Raptor 3 rocket engine. Previous Starship iterations were already the biggest and most powerful rockets ever to launch, and V3 will continue to up the ante.

Starship V2 wrapped up its tenure during the Flight 11 launch last October. The mission continued a bounceback from a rocky start to 2025 for the rocket, which saw the Ship upper stage explode during its first three missions that year, in January, March and May. The final two Starship flights last year were deemed complete successes, but SpaceX hit another speed bump during its testing and preparations with V3 rocket hardware.

The first V3 Super Heavy booster suffered an accident on SpaceX's test stand in November, delaying the upgraded model's debut by several months as another booster was assembled. In the meantime, SpaceX has nearly completed construction on the second launch pad at its Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas, where the company plans to begin test operations on the Flight 12 booster "in the coming days," the company said in a March 9 post on X.

The V3 Starship upper stage for Flight 12, dubbed Ship 39, also recently completed a round of tests to qualify the vehicle before its upcoming launch.

"Across several days, engineers tested the vehicle’s redesigned propellant system and its structural strength, including squeeze tests to mimic the forces of future ship catches," SpaceX said in a March 7 post on X.

Starship is the first-ever launch vehicle designed for full reusability. Its Super Heavy booster has completed three returns to its Starbase pad, where the chopstick-like arms of SpaceX's "Mechazilla" launch towercatch the booster out of the air. The completion of the site's second pad and tower gives SpaceX the option to return Ship as well, for the upper stage's first-ever mid-air catch and recovery.

The ability to land and relaunch Starship is critical for SpaceX, which is contracted to design a version of the Ship upper stage as the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program. The company had originally been tasked with providing a Starship lander for a crewed mission to the moon on Artemis 3 in 2028, but a recent shakeup of NASA's Artemis mission roadmap has tightened that timeline.

NASA now plans to launch Artemis 3 in 2027. The mission will fly to low Earth orbit, where Orion, the Artemis crew capsule, will conduct rendezvous and docking maneuvers with either or both Artemis lunar landers.

In addition to Starship, NASA selected Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface on future Artemis missions. And, as part of the Artemis restructuring, NASA has indicated a willingness to fly Orion with whichever lander is available when Artemis 3 is ready to launch. Should only one of those vehicles be space-worthy when the time comes, it's likely its competitor will miss out on the opportunity to perform the program's first crewed landing, which is now expected on Artemis 4.

SpaceX's Starship megarocket will get off the ground again in mid-March, if all goes according to plan.

The company plans to launch Starship's next test flight in six weeks, Elon Musk said Sunday (Jan. 25) via X, the social media platform he bought in October 2022 (when it was still known as Twitter).

The flight will be the 12th overall for Starship but the first of the bigger, more powerful "Version 3" (V3) iteration of the vehicle.

SpaceX is developing Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, to help humanity colonize Mars.

The giant vehicle consists of two elements: a booster called Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply Ship. Both stages are designed to be fully reusable, and both are powered by SpaceX's Raptor engine.

Starship debuted in April 2023 and now has 11 suborbital test flights under its belt, five of which occurred last year. The most recent two, which lifted off on Aug. 26 and Oct. 13, were completely successful, but there was a hiccup in the leadup to Flight 12: The Super Heavy originally slated for the mission buckled during testing in November, forcing SpaceX to get another booster ready.

Flight 12 will mark the debut of Starship V3, which is slightly taller than V2 — 408.1 feet (124.4 meters) vs. 403.9 feet (123.1 m) — but considerably more powerful. V3 can loft more than 100 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, compared to about 35 tons for V2, according to Musk.

The increased brawn comes courtesy of Raptor 3, a new variant of the engine that will fly for the first time on the upcoming test mission.

Flight 12 will be a pretty big deal, because Starship V3 is the first iteration of the megarocket that's capable of flying to Mars. If things go well with this and other upcoming test missions — which must demonstrate key capabilities such as reaching Earth orbit and in-space refueling — SpaceX could potentially launch a small fleet of uncrewed Starship V3 vehicles to the Red Planet late this year, Musk has said.

Just before the holidays, SpaceX took a big step toward the next test flight of its Starship megarocket.

On Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), the company posted a photo on X of the shiny Super Heavy booster that will conduct Starship Flight 12 standing in a high bay at its Starbase facility in South Texas. "Stacking complete," the photo's caption reads.

SpaceX has not yet announced a target date for that upcoming launch but has said that it's expected in the first quarter of this year.

That represents a bit of a delay, because the Super Heavy booster that was originally slated for Flight 12 buckled during testing in late November and SpaceX had to get another vehicle ready.

Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, standing more than 400 feet (122 meters) tall when fully stacked. It consists of two fully reusable elements — Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 m) upper stage known as Starship, or simply Ship.

Starship flew five times last year. The giant rocket suffered problems on the first three of those suborbital test launches, but the last two, which launched in August and October, went entirely according to plan.

Flight 12 will try to extend that run of success while also breaking in the new "Version 3" of Starship. Among other modifications, this variant is a bit taller than its predecessors and will also be the first to employ SpaceX's new Raptor 3 engine.

Starship Version 3 is the first iteration of the vehicle capable of flying to Mars, SpaceX has said. And that could happen sooner than you think: Company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said he'd like to launch a few uncrewed Starships to the Red Planet during the next opportunity, which comes in the last few months of this year. (The two planets align for efficient interplanetary travel just once every 26 months.)

Starship must tick some big boxes before making that giant leap, however. For example, the vehicle still needs to reach Earth orbit and master in-space refueling.

Asengineers prepare NASA's the space shuttle Discovery for a July launch, theorbiter's next astronaut crew is training hard for the upcoming spaceflight.

"It'samazing to see how dedicated everyone is," said Lisa Nowak, a missionspecialist for NASA's STS-121spaceflight, of the teams of workers preparing Discovery for flight. "Weknow that they've been working very hard and are giving is the safest shuttleand tank that they can."

Shuttleworkers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida have attached Discoveryto the externalfuel tank and solid rocket boosters that will launch it into orbit. Theorbiter rolledinto NASA's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building - where shuttle launchstacks are assembled - on May 12 and is due to roll out to the Pad 39B at 2:00a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on May 19.

Meanwhile,Nowak and her STS-121 crewmates continue to prepare for a plannedJuly 1 launch toward theInternational Space Station (ISS) on NASA's second test flight since the 2003 Columbia accident. Theastronauts spent last week conducting spacewalk rehearsals and long-durationflight simulations with mission controllers and a stand-in space station crew,NASA officials said.

"It doesseem more real, and I can't identify why," Nowak told SPACE.com of the STS-121launch - which will mark the first spaceflight of her astronaut career - in arecent interview. "Maybe it's just because really everybody is more confidentthat everything is ready to go. You can feel that all around the [Johnson SpaceCenter] and I'm getting very excited."

Commanded byveteran astronaut StevenLindsey, NASA's STS-121 mission has weathered a series of delayssince the space agency launchedits first post-Columbia accident mission - STS-114 aboard Discovery - inJuly 2005. The STS-121 crew also includes pilot Mark Kelly, mission specialistsMichael Fossum, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers, and European astronaut ThomasReiter. Reiter will join the InternationalSpace Station astronauts as the outpost's third crewmember.

The STS-121crew will deliver a cargo module full of supplies to the ISS, as well as stageat least two spacewalks to test shuttle flight safety and repair improvementsand conduct station maintenance. A third spacewalk, which NASA has pulledfrom the mission plan, could be performed pending available shuttle powerresources.

"We'restill training for all three spacewalks," STS-121 spacewalker Piers Sellers,who will make his second spaceflight during the mission, told SPACE.com."I will bet you a small sum of money, because that's all I have, that we willdo all three in fact."

During themission's first spacewalk, Sellers and STS-121 mission specialist MichaelFossum will test the stability of Discovery's orbital boom - a 50-foot(15-meter) extension that about doubles the length of orbiter's robotic arm -by perching themselves at its tip. The second excursion is a repair job of thespace station's railcar-likeMobile Transporter, with the final spacewalk slated to test shuttleheat shield repair techniques.

"We'rehoping to finish the business of showing that we can repair the shuttle to anextent, or to the best extent we can, and also fix all the things on stationthat have broken while we haven't been flying shuttles," Sellers said.

Engineershave also made a series of changes to the Discovery's external fuel tank toreduce the shedding of large pieces of foam insulation from the vessel atlaunch. Foam debris was seenduring Discovery's STS-114 mission, and a chunk of foam actually struck thespace shuttle Columbia's left wing leading edge during its 2003 launch, and hasbeen blamed for the loss of the orbiter and its crew during reentry.

Nowak saidshe and her fellow crewmembers have kept tabs on NASA's external tank work,with some traveling to KSC while the tank was attachedto its solid rocket boosters.

"We get thenews briefings and find out everything as it's going on, but we do more thanthat," Nowak said, adding that STS-121 astronauts also visited NASA's MichoudAssembly Facility to watch workers apply the foam insulation used toprevent ice from forming on the external tank's exterior when it is fueled withsuper-chilled liquid hydrogen and oxygen.

Nowak,Sellers and their STS-121 crewmates expect to spend about 13 days in orbit,including a week at the ISS, before returning to Earth during their mission.Despite the mission's extended delay, the STS-121 crew remains confident in aJuly launch.

"Definitelya bit more real, but you can never tell in this business," Sellers said of theupcoming launch date. "This time it looks like everything is going to get linedup for a July launch."

• NASA Pushes Shuttle Discovery's Move to Friday
• NASA Forgoes Fuel Tank Test for Next Shuttle Launch
• NASA's Next Shuttle to Fly Without Ice Frost Ramp Fix
• Return to Flight: NASA's Road to STS-121

Thisstory was updated at 10:58 a.m. EDT.

CAPECANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's space shuttle Discovery will have to wait one more daybefore joining its fuel tank and rocket boosters at Kennedy Space Center (KSC),the space agency said Thursday.

Problemswith a sling designed to hoist Discovery into a vertical position inside themassive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) here prevented the shuttle's move fromits hangar-like Orbiter Processing Facility. A sheared screw on the sling willhave to be replaced and tested before NASA can press ahead with Discovery'smove.

"We'vestood down on operations today," NASA spokesperson Bruce Buckingham said.

Discoveryis now set to move to the VAB, where its external fuel tank and twin solidrocket boosters await its arrival atop their Mobile Launch Platform, at 8:00a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) Friday, NASA said.

Engineershope to mate Discovery to its external tank-booster stack over the next weekand roll the entire launch system out to Pad 39B here on May 19. The orbiter'srollover and rollout are key milestones for NASA, which hopes to launchDiscovery on its STS-121mission - the agency's second post-Columbia test flight - on July 1.

NASA KSCspokesperson Jessica Rye said a sheared jack screw on a spreader beam of thesling, which keeps the hoist's outer components clear of an orbiter while theyare attached, led to today's delay.

"We do havea spare," Ryesaid, adding that it would take about three hours to swap out the jack screw.

Butengineers also want to understand what caused the faulty jack screw to shearand ensure that its replacement is working properly before strapping the100-ton Discovery orbiter in the sling and lifting it off the VAB floor.

"They'vegot a metallurgist coming in to evaluate the issue," Buckingham said.

The threatof thunderstorms over NASA's Floridaspaceport would also have challenged a late afternoon rollover for Discoverytoday, he added.

Friday'splanned rollover for Discovery will be the orbiter's first move since thespacecraft returnedto KSC following last summer's STS-114spaceflight.

NASA ispreparing Discovery to launch seven astronauts to the International SpaceStation (ISS) on the STS-121 test flight. The mission has a launch window thatstretches through July 19.

In additionto rollover operations, shuttle workers also moved the Italian-built Leonardomodule - one of four Multi-Purpose Logistic Modules - into a payload canisterThursday as part of NASA's STS-121 preparations. Packed with new equipment,experiments and other cargo, Leonardo will launch toward the ISS insideDiscovery's payload bay and carry vital supplies to the orbital laboratory'screw. Other cargo items, such as replacement ISS parts and spacewalk tools,have also been installed in the payload canister.

Buckinghamtold SPACE.com that current plans call for Leonardo to be delivered toPad 39B next week, possibly before Discovery rolls out from the VAB.

Discoverylaunched NASA's first return to flight mission, STS-114, to the ISS last Julyon  a 14-day mission that ended with a successfullanding at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert. Theshuttle returnedto KSC on Aug. 21 atop NASA's modified 747 carrier jet.

• NASA Forgoes Fuel Tank Test for Next Shuttle Launch
• NASA's Next Shuttle to Fly Without Ice Frost Ramp Fix
• Return to Flight: NASA's Road to STS-121
• STS-114 Return to Flight Special Report

CAPE CANAVERAL - Discoverywill move into Kennedy Space Center's massive assembly building this week,marking a key milestone in preparations for a planned July 1 launch on NASA's secondpost-Columbia shuttle mission.

Secured atop a 76-wheeltransporter, Discovery will be backed out of a nearby hangar about 8 a.m.Thursday and escorted to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building by techniciansand engineers who have readied the orbiter for flight.

"It's always nice whenthe vehicle leaves the hangar," said KSC spokeswoman Jessica Rye.

The date and time for themove was selected after a meeting Monday. It had been plannedfor Friday; if all goes well, the move will take place 24 hours ahead ofschedule.

The short trip will cap a263-day stay in the hangar, one that began Aug. 22 after Discovery was ferriedback to KSC from Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The spaceship landedat the Mojave Desert military base at the end of NASA's first post-Columbia test flightand then was flownback to Florida atop a modified 747 jumbo jet.

Once in the assemblybuilding, crane operators will hoist Discovery atop a mobile launcher platformand connect it to an externaltank with two attached solid rocket boosters.

The assembled shuttleremains scheduled to roll out to launch pad 39B on May 19.

A move to the pad thenwould allow NASA to preserve two weeks of leeway in the schedule for a July1 launch. The launch window will close July 19.

Publishedunder license from FLORIDATODAY. Copyright ? 2006 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproducedin any way without the written consent of FLORIDATODAY.

• NASA Forgoes Fuel Tank Test for Next Shuttle Launch
• NASA Mulls Fuel Tank Test for Next Shuttle Flight
• NASA's Next Shuttle to Fly Without Ice Frost Ramp Fix
• Return to Flight Special Report: NASA's Road to STS-121