SpaceX Begins Cryo Testing Booster 20 for Starship Flight 13

BOCA CHICA, Texas — SpaceX has moved its next Super Heavy booster into one of the most demanding phases of pre-flight testing, signaling that hardware for Starship Flight 13 is coming together quickly at Starbase. Booster 20 has rolled from the production bays to the Massey's test site and begun its cryogenic proof testing campaign, a key milestone on the road to the next orbital-class launch.

Cryogenic proof testing fills the booster with super-cold propellant to verify that its tanks and structure can withstand the extreme temperatures and pressures of flight without a full engine firing. Clearing it is one of the gating steps before a booster can advance to static fire and, ultimately, launch. SpaceX has been targeting late June for Flight 13, and Booster 20's move to the test stand keeps that timeline within reach.

Two Vehicles Coming Together

Flight 13 will pair Booster 20 with Ship 40, and both are progressing in parallel. Ship 40 has had its nosecone mated to the payload bay, while teams install forward flaps and continue applying the heatshield tiles that protect the vehicle during reentry. Building two halves of a launch stack simultaneously reflects the cadence SpaceX has been chasing since the V3 vehicle debuted.

The parallel work matters because Starship's value proposition rests on rapid, repeatable flights. Every test campaign that moves smoothly from cryo proof to static fire shortens the gap between missions and brings the program closer to the high launch rate SpaceX needs for Starlink deployment and beyond.

Building on Flight 12

The push toward Flight 13 follows the V3 booster anomaly that prompted a mishap review after Flight 12. Rather than slow the broader program, SpaceX has continued readying the next vehicles, a pattern the company has used throughout Starship's development to keep iterating even as investigations run their course.

That approach has defined Starbase from the beginning: build, test, learn, and fly again. The cryogenic campaign now underway on Booster 20 is the latest concrete sign that the rhythm is holding.

Why Flight 13 Counts

A clean Flight 13 would help validate the V3 design and demonstrate that SpaceX can turn its newest hardware around at pace. According to coverage of the test campaign from NASASpaceflight, Starbase teams are positioning the site for quick turnarounds on future flights, with infrastructure work advancing alongside the vehicles themselves.

For a company that just entered public markets at a valuation north of $2 trillion, the steady drumbeat of Starship progress is more than an engineering story. It is the foundation for the launch capability that underpins Starlink, orbital computing, and the long-term ambition of carrying humans to Mars. Booster 20's trip to the test stand is a small step, but it is exactly the kind of step that keeps the larger vision on schedule.