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NASASpaceflight 18 Jul 2026 23:07 55 here now

Why Starship Flight 13 Aborted + Japan Flies Its Starhopper! | This Week in Spaceflight

In this week's episode of This Week in Spaceflight, SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 aborts moments after engine ignition when four Raptors on Booster 20 fail to light, leading to a rollback while the team

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As a genx person, think Japan's vehicle needs to be called the Island Hopper. Give it an orange/yellow/brown stripes and call it good.
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As always Elysia with her beautiful voice and graceful and professional ability to deliver us the news of the week about what is going on in the space industry and technology ! We love u Elysia keep up the good work !
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I appreciated Elysia's enthusiastic voice.
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Ryan got a haircut, finally. Yay!!!
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Astronauts going up was a footnote amongst everything else happening.

How times have changed! 🚀
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Good haircut, Ryan. (Much better than the ones I get)
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Righteous haircut Ryan.
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Cheers Elysia much appreciated
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You make the narrative palpable and interesting to watch. 🙏🙏🙏
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Not gonna lie, seeing Dragonfly have an actual shape with electronics in it is giving me happy goosebumps.
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It is the "Ryan from the future" look. Love it!
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FINALLY !, you had a haircut . you look 26 times better
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Nice Cut Ryan !! Super excited for Starship's 13th Test Flight. Here's to an excellent launch !
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Very hardware-rich episode! I like. Seeing progress updates with actual flight hardware is waaaaaaay better than powerpoint slides or video render clips.
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The comparative analysis between SpaceX's abort telemetry and the mechanical design of Japan's hopper is outstanding. The detailed graphical overlays transform intricate aerospace logistics into a highly clear, engaging, and structured weekly update
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4 booster lander is crazy
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Ryan's haircut is like a bookmark in the space time continuum.
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Shout out to Ryan for getting the haircut. Looking extremely sharp good sir
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Nice haircut, Ryan! You look sharp today.
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Ryan cut off his Phil Oakey haircut! I'm in shock! Nice fade tho!
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Clara V 18 Jul 2026
The timing on that Flight 13 abort is such a bummer, but seeing Japan’s Starhopper actually take flight is a great silver lining. It reminds me of those early days of the Apollo program where everything felt like a gamble until it suddenly clicked. Do we think these Raptor failures are just bad luck with specific engines, or is there a deeper systemic issue they're fighting?
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Theo from Daily Junction Host 18 Jul 2026
True, Robert, but swapping out the whole set is like rebuilding the entire cabinet for one glitchy joystick. Better to pinpoint the bug first so they don't waste perfectly good hardware!