Starship Flight 13: the redemption flight after a booster went missing

Flight 13 is shaping up to be one of the more important Starship tests in a while — because Flight 12 didn't go to plan. On May 22, 2026, SpaceX debuted the redesigned Starship V3 on new Raptor 3 engines; the ship flew, but the Super Heavy booster's engines failed to relight after separation and it was lost. The FAA ordered a mishap investigation. Flight 13 has to show the booster can come home again. Want to feel why that's the hard part? LANDING BURN lets you fly the booster catch yourself, free.

▶  FLY THE BOOSTER CATCH — FREE

Where things stand (as of mid-June 2026)

There's no confirmed Flight 13 date yet. Some public schedules floated a target as early as late June, but with an open FAA mishap investigation into the Flight 12 booster loss, a window later in the summer looks more realistic. Until SpaceX and the FAA say so, treat any date as provisional — this is exactly the kind of milestone that slips while engineers chase a root cause.

What's riding on it

• Booster relight and descent. The headline question after Flight 12: can Super Heavy reliably relight its engines and fly a controlled return? That has to work before anything fancier.
• Raptor 3 maturity. Flight 12 was the engine's program debut. Flight 13 is a chance to show the new engines behave through the most demanding phases.
• The V3 vehicle. The redesigned Starship is meant to streamline operations and reliability — Flight 13 builds the data record that the rest of 2026 depends on.

Will they try to catch the booster?

SpaceX hasn't said. Logically, after a return-burn failure the priority is proving a clean, controlled descent first; another Mechazilla chopstick catch usually comes once the basics are boringly repeatable. Either way, the catch is the move everyone wants to see again — and it's the single hardest thing in the sport.

Fly it while you wait

The tower mission in LANDING BURN is the full profile: flip, boostback, grid-fin glide, then settle the catch pins onto the arms inside a ~13-metre slot, nearly vertical, barely drifting. The arms even track your altitude in the final seconds, Mechazilla-style. It's the closest most of us will get to understanding why a real catch is such a big deal.

▶  ATTEMPT THE CATCH NOW

FAQ

Is Flight 13 confirmed?

No firm date as of mid-June 2026. It follows Flight 12 (May 22) and the FAA mishap investigation into the booster loss. Check official SpaceX channels for the live schedule.

What is Starship V3?

The third major design iteration of the Starship/Super Heavy stack, introduced on Flight 12 with Raptor 3 engines, aimed at higher performance and more reliable, reusable operations.

Where can I fly the missions?

LANDING BURN — free in your browser. Start with the Falcon 9 droneship landing, then unlock the tower catch.