Starship Flight 13 was scrubbed twice before it flew — the engine abort and the weather delay, explained

Update, July 24, 2026: Starship Flight 13 has since launched, deploying 20 Starlink V3 satellites, with the booster splashing down under control in the Gulf. See our Flight 13 launch results for what is confirmed and what is still unknown. Everything below describes the two scrubbed attempts that came first, as reported on July 23.

Did Starship Flight 13 succeed? It hasn’t launched yet.

That is the whole, honest answer as of Thursday, July 23, 2026. Searches spiked this week because of the delay, not a result: SpaceX’s Starship Flight 13 has been scrubbed twice and has not left the pad. If you’ve seen a post claiming the ship already deployed a batch of Starlinks or nailed a landing, that is a prediction of the flight plan — not something that happened. This is a developing story, and the sequence below keeps the confirmed events separate from the plan.

What has actually happened: two scrubs

There have been two attempts, and they failed for two different reasons — worth untangling, because some fan accounts have blurred them together.

• July 16, 2026 — engine-ignition abort. The first attempt ended in an automatic abort at about T-0 when, per CNN’s coverage, roughly four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite. The abort happened before liftoff and the vehicle was safed and detanked. Between attempts, SpaceX replaced and tested engines and ran a static fire that ignited all 33.
• July 23, 2026 — weather scrub. The second attempt was scrubbed for weather. As the Space.com live blog reported, SpaceX wanted clear skies to image the heat shield at high dynamic pressure during ascent, and July 23 visibility over the pad was not suitable.

The July 16 event was about engines; the July 23 event was about clouds. They are not the same scrub, and the abort was not on July 23.

The new target: Friday, July 24

SpaceX is now aiming for Friday, July 24, 2026, with a 90-minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. CDT / 6:45 p.m. EDT / 2245 UTC, flying from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas, according to Spaceflight Now. A target is not a liftoff. Weather and hardware can move it again, so treat July 24 as the plan, not a promise.

The plan — every phase still pending

Here is what SpaceX intends to do once it flies. None of this is a result. The vehicle is Ship 40 stacked on Super Heavy Booster 20 (v3/Block 3 hardware), and the Space.com mission preview lays out the profile: hot-stage separation about two and a half minutes after liftoff; a booster boostback burn to a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico — not a tower catch this time; deployment of 20 Starlink V3 satellites, six of them said to carry cameras to photograph the ship’s heat-shield tiles; a single-Raptor relight in space; a controlled reentry at high dynamic pressure; and a splashdown in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia about 65 minutes after liftoff.

The timeline below is built in two layers on purpose: the confirmed attempt log, and the planned flight profile with every phase tagged as expected. Use the status filter to see, at a glance, how little of this has actually happened.

Where Flight 13 Actually Stands

Starship Flight 13: the attempt log and the planned flight profile

A two-layer timeline for SpaceX Starship Flight 13, updated after it flew on July 24, 2026: the attempt log (July 16 engine-ignition abort, July 23 weather scrub, July 24 liftoff) and the flight profile, with each phase marked confirmed only where an outcome has actually been reported.

1. July 16, 2026 · Attempt 1 — ABORTED

   Aborted at ~T-0: about 4 of the 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite

   SpaceX's first launch attempt ended in an automatic abort just before liftoff when roughly four of the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite. The vehicle was safed and detanked. Between attempts, SpaceX replaced and tested engines and ran a static fire that ignited all 33.

   Source ↗

2. July 23, 2026 · Attempt 2 — SCRUBBED (weather)

   Scrubbed by weather — a separate event from the July 16 abort

   The second attempt was scrubbed for weather. SpaceX wanted clear skies to image the heat shield at high dynamic pressure during ascent, and July 23 visibility over the pad was not suitable. This is a distinct event from the July 16 engine-ignition abort, which some sources misdate to July 23.

   Source ↗

3. July 24, 2026 · Attempt 3 — LAUNCHED

   Liftoff on the third attempt, in a window opening 2245 UTC

   Friday, July 24, 2026: the third attempt flew, from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas, in a 90-minute window opening 5:45 p.m. CDT / 6:45 p.m. EDT / 2245 UTC.

   Source ↗

4. Planned · T-0

   Liftoff — Ship 40 atop Super Heavy Booster 20 (v3/Block 3)

   Ship 40 stacked on Super Heavy Booster 20, both v3/Block 3 hardware — the return-to-flight after Flight 12 and the first operational deployment of V3 Starlinks.

   Source ↗

5. Planned · ~T+2.5 min

   Hot-stage separation

   About two and a half minutes after liftoff the booster and ship separated via hot-staging, and both stages went on to complete their own descents.

   Source ↗

6. Planned · after separation

   Booster boostback and a controlled Gulf splashdown — not a tower catch

   Super Heavy Booster 20 performed a boostback burn and came down under control in the Gulf off Boca Chica. No tower catch was attempted on this flight. One caveat: coverage reports it appeared not all 13 engines lit for the landing burn.

   Source ↗

7. Planned · in-space coast

   Deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites — 6 carry cameras

   The ship deployed all 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first of that generation ever flown. Six of the 20 carry cameras to image the ship's heat-shield tiles.

   Source ↗

8. Planned · in-space

   Single-Raptor in-space relight

   The ship relit a single Raptor engine in space, a demonstration of on-orbit restart. SpaceX reported the burn as a success.

   Source ↗

9. Planned · reentry

   Controlled entry at high dynamic pressure

   The ship flew a controlled reentry through peak heating and maximum dynamic pressure — the phase the clear-weather imaging was meant to capture — and SpaceX reported a significant improvement in heat-shield performance.

   Source ↗

10. Planned · ~T+65 min

    Indian Ocean splashdown off Western Australia

    About 65 minutes after liftoff, the ship completed a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean west of Australia after its landing flip — then tipped over and floated intact, still transmitting video. SpaceX called it the softest Starship splashdown yet.

    Source ↗

How this is calculated

A hand-checked chronology compiled from the Space.com live blogs and mission preview, Spaceflight Now, CNN, and SpaceNews. A row is marked confirmed only where coverage reports the event as having occurred; rows describing phases with no reported outcome remain marked expected, which after launch means unknown rather than upcoming. Where a phase time is publicly given it is shown as an approximate T-plus figure; where it is not, the phase is described in sequence without a fabricated clock time.

Data as of July 24, 2026 · verified July 24, 2026 · v3

Assumptions, limitations & sources

Assumptions

• · Phases still marked expected are ones with no reported outcome, not ones still to come — the flight is over.
• · Approximate T-plus times (hot-stage separation, splashdown) are as SpaceX has stated them; other phases are ordered without asserting a precise clock time.

Limitations

• · This is a fast-developing story; launch-day reporting is occasionally revised, and SpaceX's own post-flight summary had not been published when this was last verified.
• · Outcomes for the in-space relight, the reentry and the ship's Indian Ocean splashdown are not asserted here, because none had been reported at the last verification.
• · The July 16 event was an engine-ignition abort; the July 23 event was a separate weather scrub. Some fan sources conflate the two — they are kept distinct here.
• · FAA launch-license specifics for Flight 13 are not cleanly sourced and are not asserted.

Sources

• Space.com — Starship Flight 13 launch updates (live blog), July 23, 2026 — Space.com, checked July 22, 2026
• Space.com — Starship Flight 13 mission preview: 20 Starlink V3 satellites — Space.com, checked July 22, 2026
• Spaceflight Now — SpaceX ready for 2nd attempt to launch Starship Flight 13 after post-abort engine work — Spaceflight Now, checked July 22, 2026
• CNN — SpaceX Starship Flight 13 launch (July 16 scrub coverage) — CNN, checked July 22, 2026
• SpaceNews — FAA requires mishap investigation into latest Starship launch (Flight 12) — SpaceNews, checked July 22, 2026

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Why the stakes are higher this time

Flight 13 is a return-to-flight, and it matters where it sits in the sequence. Flight 11 (October 13, 2025) was a full success, with controlled landings of both the booster and the ship. Flight 12 (May 22, 2026) was more mixed: the ship splashed down, but the booster landing failed — several Raptor engines failed shortly after the boostback burn — and the FAA required a mishap investigation. Flight 13 is the first flight after that, and the first operational deployment of V3 Starlink satellites, which raises the stakes on a vehicle that is still proving out its booster recovery.

So where does that leave it

Narrowly, and plainly: Flight 13 has not launched. It aborted on engines on July 16, scrubbed on weather on July 23, and now targets July 24. Everything past liftoff — the Starlink deploy, the relight, the two splashdowns — is a plan, and this story will be updated when the vehicle actually flies.