SpaceX is scheduled to launch the 13th test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster on Thursday at 5:45 pm CDT. The mission will carry 20 functional Starlink V3 satellites into low‑Earth orbit. Engineers have installed the satellites in the ship’s deployer, which will release them one at a time through a side opening. SpaceX will attempt brief laser communications between the V3 satellites and other spacecraft, and will try to contact ground stations in South Africa while the satellites are in orbit. The flight will follow a suborbital trajectory that arcs about halfway around the world, reaching an apogee of roughly 100 miles before descending for a splashdown northwest of Australia. The mission is expected to last a little more than one hour.

This flight builds on the previous Starship test in May, which demonstrated engine‑out capability but did not complete a Raptor reignition in space. The upcoming flight includes a planned Raptor restart to verify that the engine can relight in vacuum. The Super Heavy booster, which has 33 Raptor engines, previously suffered a control issue after stage separation; hardware changes are intended to improve relight reliability. SpaceX will also test modified heat‑shield tiles and load‑sensing attachments to gather data on reusability and structural stress during ascent.

SpaceX said the mission will provide data to evaluate the heat shield’s ability to survive multiple reentries without extensive refurbishment. The company notes that a fully loaded Starship could launch up to 60 Starlink V3 satellites, a capacity that could dramatically increase the network’s bandwidth. NASA is counting on Starship for future lunar landings under the Artemis program, and the company aims to begin operational Starlink flights later this year if testing continues successfully.

The launch window opens at 5:45 pm CDT on Thursday, with a predicted splashdown in the Indian Ocean and a controlled splashdown of the Starship vehicle northwest of Australia.