Overview
- SpaceX automatically scrubbed Flight 13 at T‑0 on Thursday after several Super Heavy Raptor engines failed to ignite, with live webcast graphics showing four of the booster’s 33 engines never started.
- Ground crews began offloading propellant and CEO Elon Musk said two of the booster's Raptor engines will be removed and replaced before a retry that the company called likely in a few days or early next week.
- The flight was carrying 20 upgraded Starlink V3 satellites and aimed to test a controlled booster splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico plus an in‑space restart of an upper‑stage Raptor engine.
- SpaceX had modified engine startup sequencing and made hardware fixes after May’s Flight 12, but the last‑second abort highlights persistent ignition and timing reliability issues in the Starship test program.
- The delay tightens pressure from customers and investors because it pushes back Starlink testing and leaves questions about whether Starship can meet NASA and commercial launch timetables if engine starts remain unreliable.