FAA Clears Starship Flight 13 for July 14 Liftoff

BOCA CHICA, Texas — SpaceX has a firm target on the calendar for its next Starship flight. The Federal Aviation Administration has issued advisories reflecting a No-Earlier-Than launch date of July 14, 2026, for Flight 13, the 13th integrated test of the most powerful rocket ever built, with a primary window opening at 5:45 p.m. local time and a backup the following day.

The date became concrete this week after SpaceX rolled the Super Heavy booster to Orbital Launch Pad 2 and kicked off the pre-flight test campaign. The company confirmed the milestone on July 9, putting the program on track for a mid-month liftoff pending one final gate: a static fire of the booster.

Hardware Ready to Fly

Flight 13 will fly Booster 20 paired with Ship 40, the second flight of the taller, more capable Starship Version 3 upper stage that now stands 408 feet tall. Ship 40 already cleared a major hurdle on July 1, completing a 60-second static fire of all six of its Raptor engines. The booster rolled out of the build site in early June and passed its cryogenic proof test, leaving the 33-engine static fire as the last box to check before the vehicle is cleared for flight.

That test will generate close to 20 million pounds of thrust and give engineers the data they need to green-light launch. SpaceX has been pushing Flight 13 toward an orbital refueling demonstration and first-ever propellant transfer, building on the six-engine static fire of Ship 40 that cleared the path earlier this month.

A Monthly Cadence Takes Shape

The mission profile is expected to mirror Flight 12, including a Raptor relight in space and a controlled soft splashdown of the upper stage in the Atlantic. President and COO Gwynne Shotwell has said SpaceX is targeting a roughly once-a-month launch cadence, with hopes of achieving full orbital injection on Flight 14 and expanding operations to a new pad at LC-39A in Florida.

In a sign of just how fast the program is moving, Ship 41 — designated for Flight 14 — is already undergoing testing at Starbase concurrently with Flight 13 preparations, according to launch trackers. That parallel processing points to a company determined to compress the turnaround between flights, exactly the tempo Starship needs to certify for commercial payloads and, eventually, NASA's Artemis lunar landings.

Why July 14 Matters

Each successive Starship flight adds to the operational data SpaceX needs to make the vehicle fully and rapidly reusable, the breakthrough that would slash the cost of reaching orbit. The FAA advisory, first reported by Advanced Television, even includes airspace notices covering July 15, suggesting SpaceX has a two-day window in mind if weather or the booster static fire pushes the schedule.

Whether July 14 holds or slips into the following week, the pieces are lining up fast. With the booster vertical, the ship test-fired and the FAA date on the board, Starship's next leap looks to be just days away.