Update, July 13, 2026: SpaceX is now targeting Thursday, July 16 for Flight 13, a slight slip from the no earlier than July 14 date discussed below. The flight is also set to carry its first operational cargo, deploying 20 next generation Starlink V3 satellites, the first time satellites will be released from a Starship. See our full report on Starship’s first Starlink deployment for the payload and the ispace lunar deal. SpaceX confirmed the July 16 target on X.
SpaceX is preparing to fly its Starship rocket again, and the target now on the calendar is Tuesday, July 14, 2026. That date comes from an official Federal Aviation Administration advisory, which lists the flight as no earlier than July 14 and marks it as tentative, a formal way of saying the schedule can still move. Launch tracking sites reflect the same no earlier than framing, and July 14 now reads as the primary date on the FAA paperwork while teams wait to see whether weather, technical readiness, and range availability hold.
Flight 13 matters because of what happened on the previous attempt. Flight 12 ran into engine trouble during a boostback maneuver, the phase in which the Super Heavy booster flips and fires its engines to steer back toward the launch site after separating from the upper stage. The problem was serious enough that the FAA required a mishap investigation, led by SpaceX, to be completed before Starship could fly again. That grounding followed the debut of the V3 version of the vehicle, and until the investigation closed and corrective steps were accepted, the rocket stayed on the ground.
The mishap investigation process is standard for a vehicle still in testing, but it carries weight here. The FAA does not simply wave a rocket back into the sky after an anomaly. SpaceX has to identify what went wrong, document the causes, and show that whatever fix it applies addresses the failure mode before the agency signs off. Only once that review is closed does a launch window like the one now marked for July 14 become meaningful. The advisory date, in other words, reflects both a company ready to fly and a regulator willing to let it, which is why the grounding that followed the V3 debut was such a firm gate on the schedule.
For the hardware itself, launch tracking sites list Booster 20 paired with Ship 40 for Flight 13. SpaceX has not publicly confirmed that pairing in its own materials, so the assignment should be read as the trackers’ best information rather than an official manifest. That distinction matters with Starship because vehicles are built, tested, and sometimes reassigned quickly, and the booster and ship that actually roll to the pad can change as the date approaches.
Starship remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, and SpaceX is developing it as a fully reusable system meant to carry cargo and eventually people to orbit, the Moon, and Mars. Each flight in the test campaign is designed to push the vehicle further, whether that means proving the booster can return and be caught, demonstrating the upper stage can survive reentry, or validating the engines through the full sequence of a mission. An engine issue during boostback, the failure that grounded Flight 12, sits right at the center of that work, because recovering and reusing the booster is one of the features meant to make the whole system economical.
Beyond this single mission, the pace of the test campaign is part of the story. SpaceX has said it wants to fly Starship often, treating each launch as a data gathering exercise rather than a rare event, and long gaps caused by investigations cut against that goal. A clean flight on or near July 14 would let the company return to a faster rhythm, while another anomaly would likely mean another review and another pause. That is why the date drawn from the FAA advisory is being watched closely, even with the caveat that it can move.
None of this guarantees a July 14 liftoff. The no earlier than label exists precisely because launches slip, and Starship flights have a history of moving by days or weeks as teams work through fueling tests, hardware swaps, and final checks. Weather along the Texas coast can close a window, a technical reading during propellant loading can trigger a scrub, and range scheduling can push a date even when the rocket is ready. The FAA advisory sets the earliest plausible target rather than a promise, and the provisional listings on the trackers are a reminder of how much the number can still move.
What is clear is that Flight 13 comes as the next step after a setback rather than a routine repeat. The FAA required a full accounting of the Flight 12 anomaly, SpaceX had to work through that review after the V3 grounding, and the calendar has now advanced to a specific date that regulators have written down. Whether Booster 20 and Ship 40 fly on July 14 or a little later, the flight will be the first real test of whether the fixes applied after the boostback failure hold up when the engines light again.
Source: July 14, 2026 date per an FAA advisory (NET, subject to change), as reported by Spaceflight Now and reflected on launch trackers Next Spaceflight and Space Launch Schedule; Flight 12 boostback anomaly, mishap investigation, and V3 grounding via Spaceflight Now and Astronomy.com; Booster 20 and Ship 40 assignment per launch trackers, not confirmed by SpaceX.