SpaceX reschedules 13th Starship test flight to Thursday after abort due to 4 engine failures

Published Jul 20, 04:08 PM UTC

SpaceX has rescheduled its 13th Starship test flight to Thursday, July 23, after aborting the launch on July 16 due to four of 33 engines failing to ignite. The article highlights that Starship is central to SpaceX's valuation, particularly its AI unit focused on orbital data centers. The market reacted negatively to the abort, erasing $100 billion in market cap. SpaceX plans to replace two Raptor engines and has made software/hardware changes to address directional flip issues from test flight 12. The company expects orbital payload delivery by late 2026 and AI compute satellites by 2028. Analysts view the setback as minor in a long-term infrastructure cycle.