SpaceX will launch 20 Starlink V3 satellites on Starship in a test mission.

After deployment, the Starlink V3 test satellites will attempt to connect with ground stations in South Africa.

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 16, 2026, for the 13th flight test of its Starship rocket system.

After deployment, the Starlink V3 satellites will extend their solar panels and test laser communications before burning up about 20 minutes later.

The Starship flight test has a 90-minute launch window that opens at 6:45 p.m. ET.

The Super Heavy booster on the Starship flight test will attempt a full ascent, separation, and return sequence.

The Starship flight test will also evaluate the thermal protection system that shields the ship from extreme heat during Earth return.

The Starship upper stage will attempt to deploy 20 next-generation Starlink V3 internet satellites for the first time.

The Super Heavy booster’s primary objective is a controlled landing burn over the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX modified Starship’s propulsion system to address the engine-out issue experienced on the previous flight.

SpaceX hopes to begin operational flights by the end of 2026.

Engineers installed special load-sensing tiles on Starship to measure high pressure during the climb to low-Earth orbit.

Six of the deployed satellites will carry cameras that will photograph Starship’s protective tiles.

SpaceX updated Starship hardware and software to improve engine relight reliability after Flight 12 in May.

The Starlink V3 satellites are designed to expand global network capacity and user speeds.

Engineers painted several Starship tiles white to simulate missing pieces during safety testing.

During Flight 12, the Starship upper stage reached a suborbital path and completed a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

During Flight 12, one of Starship’s vacuum-optimized engines shut down early.

Starship will attempt to relight its single Raptor engine in space and perform a controlled entry, descent, and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

The Long March 5 Y14 rocket arrived at Wenchang Space Launch Site on July 13 to support the Chang'e-7 launch mission.

The Chang'e-7 probe and the Long March 5 Y14 rocket will undergo launch-area general assembly and testing at Wenchang Space Launch Site.

Chang'e-7 is a robotic lunar south pole landing mission scheduled for launch in the second half of 2026.

After the Challenger accident, all DSP spacecraft except DSP-16 were transferred to expendable launch vehicles such as Titan IV and Delta IV.

The Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) is a payload processing facility in the Kennedy Space Center industrial area.

The PHSF began as the Cargo Hazardous Servicing Facility (CHSF).

The opening of the Space Station Processing Facility in the mid-1990s and a decline in shuttle hazardous payloads reduced PHSF use for shuttle missions.

The PHSF was the only available facility for the DSP-14 container transfer operation in the late 1980s.

The U.S. Air Force provided funding to help complete the PHSF and add security measures such as internal shades over the high bay and airlock windows.

The PHSF became a key facility for planetary missions launched on expendable launch vehicles beginning with Mars Observer.

The PHSF complex consists of five buildings, including the PHSF proper, the Multi-Operations Support Building, and three storage buildings for transporters, propellants, and krypton gas.

The PHSF supported five Space Shuttle missions: Gamma Ray Observatory, Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite, Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 1, and Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 2.

The Defense Support Program (DSP)-14 was the first payload planned for the first Titan IV launch.

NASA conceived the CHSF in the early 1980s to provide hazardous processing for large shuttle-class payloads.

The PHSF design was complete in 1984 and construction finished in 1987.

The first documented mission supported by the PHSF was the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) in 1990.

NASA renamed the CHSF to PHSF during the Challenger stand down.

DSP-14 measured 28 by 13.7 feet and was shipped horizontally in a large shipping container aboard a C-5 aircraft.

Reflect Orbital's first demonstrator is scheduled to fly this year after securing FCC approval last week.

Each reflector satellite is estimated to weigh about 22 to 34 kilograms fully fueled, and three satellites with a dispenser would total under 100 kilograms.

Reflect Orbital has raised money to place mirrors in low Earth orbit and sell reflected sunlight on demand.

SpaceX's Starship has a payload bay roughly eight meters across and 18 meters tall.

A three-reflector display would brighten a single beam-width of sky for one or several scheduled nights and could be turned off by tilting the film so the reflection misses Earth.

Reflect Orbital has proposed a constellation of thousands of mirrors in low Earth orbit.

A fixed reflector in a near-rectilinear halo orbit could keep a color lit over a given place for up to a couple of hours.

VA270 includes inspections, functional tests, fueling, encapsulation, and integration onto the launcher before liftoff.

EUMETSAT operates the Meteosat Third Generation program as Europe’s next-generation geostationary weather satellite fleet.

Using Ariane 6 for an EUMETSAT mission strengthens Europe’s independent access to space for strategic infrastructure such as weather services, environmental monitoring, and emergency management.

The satellites in the Meteosat Third Generation constellation are expected to improve the availability and quality of data used by European meteorological services.

MTG-I2 arrived at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and entered the payload preparation facilities for mission VA270.

MTG-I2 is the second Imager satellite in the Meteosat Third Generation program.