Starship tonight: 20 real Starlink V3 satellites for the first time
SpaceX launches its thirteenth Starship test flight on Friday evening. For the first time the payload is not a dummy but 20 real Starlink V3 satellites with solar panels and laser links.
- SpaceX plans its thirteenth Starship test flight for Friday, July 24 at 22:45 UTC, from the Starbase complex in Texas.
- For the first time the flight carries 20 real Starlink V3 satellites, where earlier flights only carried dummies and simulators.
- The satellites have solar panels and laser links, and after the test they deorbit along the same path as the vehicle.
- The July 23 attempt was scrubbed due to weather, so the window slipped by one day.
Why should you care about yet another test of a rocket that has already flown several times? Because this time Starship carries a real payload, not ballast.
SpaceX has scheduled its thirteenth test flight for Friday, July 24, from the Starbase launch complex in Texas, at 22:45 UTC. The original slot was July 23, but that attempt was scrubbed because of the weather and pushed back by a day.
What makes this flight different?
Previous Starship flights loaded the cargo bay with dummies, plain mass simulators that only check how the rocket behaves under load. Fun for the engineers, fairly dull for everyone else.
This time is different. If everything goes to plan, Starship should deploy 20 real Starlink V3 satellites into orbit for the first time. That is the new generation, bigger and heavier than the ones the Falcon 9 carries today. The whole point of Starship is to lift in a single flight what currently takes several launches.
The satellites on this flight have solar panels and laser links, the same ones the Starlink constellation uses to move data without ground stations. They are not there to stay. After the test they deorbit along the same trajectory as the vehicle itself, so they will not add space debris. In short, this is a deployment rehearsal, not a top-up of the constellation.
There were also unofficial reports that a few of the satellites carry cameras meant to stream live footage of the heat shield. That is not confirmed by primary sources yet, so take it with a pinch of salt until SpaceX says so.
What we know, and what we still do not
We know the time, the place and the main goal. We do not know the outcome. As this is written, the rocket has not launched, so this is a preview, not a report from the scene.
It is worth recalling how Starship actually works. The lower part is the Super Heavy booster with a cluster of Raptor engines, the upper part is the vehicle that carries the payload. SpaceX tries to recover and reuse both, because the whole economics only add up when the rocket does not end up at the bottom of the ocean after a single flight.
The practical upside is simple. More Starlink satellites in orbit means steadier satellite connectivity where fibre and mobile signal do not reach. If you care about fast internet in the mountains or out in the countryside, flights like this are exactly what pushes that technology forward.
Of course, a test stays a test. It can lift off smoothly, or it can end in an explosion over the Gulf of Mexico, as has happened before. That is precisely why it is called a test.
Will you stay up to catch the stream, or read the result in the morning over coffee?
