Starship Flight 15 slips on FAA planning slide to no earlier than Nov 8. The date is unconfirmed.
SpaceX has not announced a launch date for the 15th Starship flight. An FAA air-traffic planning slide dated 8 October lists the flight "no earlier than" (NET) 8 November from Starbase, Texas. NASASpaceflight, which reported the slide, calls the schedule "unofficial" [1][2]. An earlier planning date was NET 19 October [2][3]. The new slide appeared after SpaceX removed the engines from Ship 42, the upper stage assigned to the flight, for more ground testing, according to NASASpaceflight [1]. **The 8 November date is unconfirmed.** As of 14 October, SpaceX, Elon Musk, the FAA (no Flight 15 license modification) and maritime and airspace authorities (no NOTAM or marine notice) have published no date. A final check at about 2:56 a.m. ET on 14 October found no change.
What the planning slide says
On 8 October, NASASpaceflight posted on X: "Starship (unofficial) schedule latest: Flight 15 (Starbase Pad 2) ΓÇô NET November 8. Flight 16 (Potentially KSC 39A) ΓÇô NET December 10" [1]. The dates come from a slide in a CADENA presentation, an operations-planning web conference for air-traffic managers in the Americas, held on Thursday, 8 October. The secondary outlet AI Shift News quoted the slide as "SpX Starship FLT-15 NOV 08" [2].
Planning dates of this kind are provisional. They tell airspace managers when an operation might happen. They are not launch announcements.
The earlier Oct 19 target
On 24 September, NASASpaceflight posted an earlier set of planning dates: "This is super provisional! Starship Flight 15 - NET October 19," with Flight 16 NET 30 October, according to the Wikipedia article on Flight 15, which cites that post [3]. AI Shift News reported on 9 October that the FAA planning slides had earlier shown 19 October. By its count, the Flight 15 date slipped 20 days and the Starlink 30-1 mission (likely Flight 16) slipped 41 days [2]. Groksinews has not independently viewed either FAA planning deck.
Ship 42 goes back for more testing
Flight 15 is set to use Ship 42 and Booster 22, NASASpaceflight reported on 9 October [1]. "Recently, SpaceX removed all six engines from Ship 42 and has since rolled it back out to Massey's for a third time on the ship cryo-proof stand," the outlet wrote [1]. Massey's is SpaceX's test site near Starbase.
NASASpaceflight said it was "unclear exactly why SpaceX is doing this." It suggested one possibility: internal changes, possibly to engine plumbing, to address the Raptor Vacuum engine-outs seen on Flights 12 and 14 [1]. That explanation is the outlet's speculation. SpaceX has not said why the engines were removed.
According to NASASpaceflight, Ship 42 "could be ready for flight in early November" if the extra testing does not cause much delay. Booster 22 could be ready for a static fire "as early as late next week" [1].
The licensing question
NASASpaceflight also flagged a regulatory issue. According to the outlet, the current launch license is written for the 10-hour mission planned for Flight 14, and "the license states that the reentry portion is only for Flight 14" [1]. Changing that wording for Flight 15 should be simple, it said. But if SpaceX wants to change the mission, for example by trying to catch the ship, "it could take a bit to get regulatory approval to change the license" [1].
The FAA's public Starship project page lists environmental reviews and license-related actions, including a recently completed assessment covering an additional reentry trajectory back to Starbase [4]. Groksinews found no Flight 15ΓÇôspecific license modification on the FAA's pages as of 14 October. FAA license VOL 23-129 (Rev. 2) requires SpaceX to issue maritime warnings at least 24 hours before a flight [5]. No NOTAM or marine notice for Flight 15 has been found.
SpaceX has not confirmed whether it will try to catch the ship or the booster on Flight 15. NASASpaceflight said neither has been confirmed [1].
Flight 14: first time in orbit
Flight 14 launched from Starbase at 7:48 a.m. CT on 28 September. SpaceX said it was Starship's first orbital flight and the first to deliver "meaningful payload to orbit" with 26 Starlink V3 satellites [6]. According to SpaceX, the ship relit a Raptor sea-level engine for a deorbit burn and made a landing burn and flip before splashing down on target in the Pacific [6].
The flight ended well short of the plan. ABC News reported that SpaceX had scheduled a mission of just under 10 hours and about six orbits, but chose to come home at the first scheduled checkpoint, after about three hours [7]. CBC News reported that an upper-stage engine shut down early shortly after liftoff and that flight controllers decided to proceed to orbit after several minutes [8].
SpaceX's own channels
SpaceX's Flight 14 web page is the most recent Starship mission page; no Flight 15 page was found [6]. A review of the @SpaceX account on X through 13 October found Flight 14 posts and a 13 October post about Ship 40, the Flight 13 vehicle, returning to Starbase, but no Flight 15 date [9].
Chart: Launch dates (UTC) of Starship integrated flight tests 1ΓÇô14, colored by launch outcome as classified in Wikipedia's cited flight table. The dashed marker shows Flight 15's unofficial NET 8 November planning date, which is not a SpaceX date. Source: Wikipedia, "List of Starship launches," retrieved 14 October 2026 [10]. Wikipedia classifies Flight 1 as a launch failure even though SpaceX declared it a success because its main goal was to clear the pad [10].
ANALYSIS: The flight table shows gaps between flights ranging from about five weeks to seven months [10]. Flights 13 and 14 were about two months apart [10]. A Flight 15 on 8 November would come about six weeks after Flight 14. That would be possible within the historical range, but it depends on Ship 42's testing and on any license change that a new mission profile might require [1].
Sources
- NASASpaceflight (Ryan Weber), "Ship 40 Returns Home as Ship 42 gets more Cryo Proof Testing," 9 Oct 2026 (includes NSF's 8 Oct X post): https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/10/ship-40-returns-ship-42-more-testing/
- AI Shift News (secondary), 9 Oct 2026: https://aishiftnews.ca/news/starship-flight-15-now-says-nov-8-on-the-faas-planning-slides-three-weeks-later-than-before-with-ship-42s-engines-back-out/
- Wikipedia, "Starship flight 15" (cites NSF's 24 Sep 2026 post and the CADENA 8 Oct deck): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_flight_15
- FAA, SpaceX Starship Super Heavy project page: https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship
- FAA, Vehicle Operator License VOL 23-129 Rev. 2: https://www.faa.gov/media/69476
- SpaceX, Starship Flight 14: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14/n
- ABC News, 28 Sep 2026: https://www-cdn.abcnews.com/US/spacex-attempt-starships-1st-orbital-flight-test/story?id=136805227
- CBC News, 28 Sep 2026: https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/starship-flight14-orbit-9.7360972
- SpaceX on X, 13 Oct 2026 (Ship 40): https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2110126570233094527
- Wikipedia, "List of Starship launches," flight table: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starship_launches
