Starship: Ship 40 Completes Single Engine Static Fire, SpaceX Prepares for Next Launch

In recent days, we reported the words of Gwynne Shotwell (President and COO of SpaceX), who outlined the roadmap for the upcoming launches of the reusable Starship rocket. As we know, at the end of May, the twelfth flight of the vehicle (Flight 12) took place, still in the prototype phase, with overall good performance despite some issues.

Super Heavy Booster 19 did not properly complete its mission while Ship 39 did not reignite one of the Raptor 3 engines in space, also due to a problem with one of the Raptor Vacuum (RVac) engines that shut down prematurely shortly after the hot-staging, which also resulted in a trajectory modification.

Flight 13 is expected to occur in July, with Super Heavy Booster 20 and Ship 40, which will make up the second third-generation Starship (V3) ever built. SpaceX aims to significantly increase the launch cadence in the future to gather more data and reach actual operational status for the vehicle as soon as possible.

Yesterday, SpaceX announced that Ship 40 completed a long-duration static fire with a single Raptor 3 (atmospheric) engine. This is an initial test useful for the test of reigniting a thruster in space, in order to achieve a new goal during experimental launches. In the near future, Ship 40 is expected to conduct a static fire with all six Raptor 3 engines (three optimized for vacuum, three atmospheric).

Shotwell stated that Flight 13 will be similar to the previous one, although efforts will be made to complete all objectives. There will likely be no recovery of the first stage due to the previous failure and the risk of damaging ground structures (such as Starbase's Pad 2). The second stage will also not be recovered and will splash down off the coast of Australia, as we have seen previously.

If this mission achieves the desired results, it will move to a test with an orbital injection and then potentially to the recovery of the second stage (for the first time). After Flight 15 and with the availability of three launch pads (plus one more under construction), the cadence is expected to increase significantly. This will allow for the launch of new Starlink V3 satellites and AI data centers (in the future) and will ultimately be crucial for the Artemis program, starting from Artemis III in mid-2027.