When is Starship Flight 15, SpaceX's first try at catching the ship?

SpaceX has not announced a date for Starship Flight 15. An unofficial air-traffic planning slide, posted by LabPadre (also known as Avid Space, which runs live cameras at Starbase), lists it for no earlier than (NET) 8 November 2026 from Starbase, Texas. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on 10 October that it "probably launches a little bit before Thanksgiving", which falls on 26 November. Elon also says Flight 15 will be SpaceX's first attempt to catch the ship, Starship's upper stage, with the launch tower. SpaceX has not confirmed that plan.

This is the status as of 4:45 a.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT), Starbase time, on 19 October 2026. We will update this page when SpaceX or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which licenses US rocket launches, publishes something new. New to Starship? Start with our explainer, What is Starship?, or see every Starship flight so far.

Is there an official Flight 15 launch date?

No. SpaceX's launches page still shows Flight 14, on 28 September, as the latest Starship mission and lists no date for Flight 15. SpaceX's X account hasn't posted one either. The FAA's Starship project page shows no Flight 15 approval. The Launch Library 2 database, an independent online launch tracker, lists the flight as "To Be Determined", fourth quarter of 2026.

The dates in circulation come from three places:

• NET 8 November. LabPadre posted a CADENA update, a planning briefing for air-traffic managers, with this date for Flight 15 from Starbase. Dates like this tell airspace managers when an operation might happen. They are provisional, not launch announcements.
• "Before Thanksgiving." Elon gave this estimate at the X Takeover event at Giga Texas on 10 October. He said the flight was about "four to six weeks" away. It is his guess, not a SpaceX schedule.
• An earlier target of 19 October. Teslarati notes that earlier reporting had pointed to a launch as early as 19 October. That date has slipped.

Elon explained why the schedule keeps moving: "We're making a bunch of improvements to the rocket between every flight." He said this round has fewer changes than usual, "but some of them take a fair bit of work and we've got to go inside the tank to make some of these changes."

Is Flight 15 SpaceX's first attempt to catch the ship?

Yes, according to Elon. "We're going to try to catch the ship, which is a super big deal," he said, quoted by Teslarati. SpaceX itself has not announced the plan on its website or X account. No Starship upper stage has ever been caught. SpaceX has caught boosters before, and a Flight 15 plan that brings the ship home would almost certainly try to catch the booster again too, though SpaceX has not posted that plan.

To be caught, the ship has to fly back from space to Starbase instead of splashing down at sea. SpaceX has been practising the approach: on Flights 12 and 13, it says the ship flew "a dynamic banking move to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly." The FAA has also finished an environmental assessment for Starship flights that return to the launch site at Boca Chica. This is a study of how a project affects the area around it. It is not approval for any one flight. As Teslarati points out, flying a ship back over land is likely to face aviation safety reviews too.

Why does catching the ship matter?

Because the ship is the missing half of a fully reusable rocket. The tower has caught Super Heavy boosters since Flight 5, on 13 October 2024. "On our first try, Mechazilla caught the booster," SpaceX wrote. (Here is how a Starship flight works, step by step.) Every ship so far has ended its flight in the ocean. The closest SpaceX has come is Ship 40, which made a soft splashdown and came "to rest intact" in the Indian Ocean on Flight 13. It was then brought back to Starbase by sea. SpaceX says it will provide "first-of-its-kind data" on a heat shield and Raptor engines that have flown.

Boosters are already being caught, so a ship catch would complete the set. SpaceX would have shown it can recover both stages of Starship intact, ready to be inspected and flown again. Elon says that would be "the first time that there's been full recovery of an orbital class rocket."

That claim needs one piece of history. The Space Shuttle, flown by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was mostly reusable. The orbiter landed on a runway. Its two solid rocket boosters came down by parachute in the Atlantic, and ships brought them back to be refurbished. But the Shuttle's big external fuel tank was thrown away on every flight. NASA calls it "the only component of the Space Shuttle that is not reused". So a ship catch would be a real first: both stages of an orbital rocket coming back whole to the launch site, ready to fly again soon, with no large tank thrown away.

Which booster and ship are flying on Flight 15?

Independent Starbase trackers on X name Booster 22 and Ship 42. SpaceX has not confirmed this pairing. RGV Aerial Photography (a Starbase photographer who posts flyover and camera updates) wrote that Ship 42 is for Flight 15 and Ship 43 is for Flight 16, and that both were in Mega Bay 2 in early October. It would be the fourth flight of the larger Version 3 (V3) vehicles, which debuted on Flight 12 in May 2026.

What those trackers have shown since early September:

• Booster 22 went to the Massey's test site for cryogenic proof ("cryoproof") tests, then returned to the production site on 12 September, RGV Aerial Photography posted. These tests fill the tanks with super-cold liquids to check the structure under flight-like conditions.
• Ship 42 at the tower. On 11–12 September, LabPadre posted that Ship 42, without its flight engines, was lifted by the Pad 2 tower's arms and hung between the chopsticks in what looked like a simulated catch. Crews also practised connecting the quick disconnect arm, the tower arm that connects fuel and power lines to the ship.
• Ship 42's engines. In late September LabPadre posted that Raptor engines were being rolled out of Mega Bay 2, "likely removed from Ship 42". On 9 October it posted that Ship 42 had been taken back to Massey's for more testing.
• Booster 22 status. On 17 October, RGV Aerial Photography posted that Booster 22 was sitting in Mega Bay 1, "waiting to roll out for pre-flight static fire testing."

What still has to happen before Flight 15 can launch?

Here is what has been reported, with the latest status we could find as of 19 October:

• Booster 22 static fire at Pad 2. A static fire is a short engine test on the ground. As of 17 October, RGV Aerial Photography said the booster was waiting to roll out for that test. Status: not done.
• Ship 42's engines back in. LabPadre and RGV Aerial Photography both reported engines coming off Ship 42 and a further cryoproof trip to Massey's. Elon has called the Raptor Vacuum shutdown on Flight 14 a software "glitch" in that one engine's computer. Status: engines out, extra testing reported; no reinstall reported yet.
• Ship 42 static fire at Massey's. It has to follow the engine work. Status: not done.
• An FAA licence for Flight 15. The FAA's Starship page shows no Flight 15 approval. A ship catch would be a different mission from Flight 14, which ended with a splashdown in the Pacific. Status: no Flight 15 approval on the FAA's Starship page.
• Tower and pad. The Pad 2 tower's catch-related tests with Ship 42 in September are done, per LabPadre's posts at the time. We have found no report of further tower work needed for a ship catch.
• Final preparations. After the static fires, SpaceX still has to finish any changes from Flight 14, load the payload and run a fuelling rehearsal. For comparison, Flight 14's full stack went through a fuelling rehearsal (a wet dress rehearsal) on 24 September, four days before launch. Status: no dates reported for Flight 15.

What should you watch for before launch?

These public signals usually come first:

1. Road closure notices around Starbase. These are often the first public sign that a booster is moving to the pad. LabPadre posts them when they go up.
2. Static fire news from SpaceX's X account or live cameras at Starbase (including LabPadre's).
3. An FAA licence decision for Flight 15, posted on the FAA's Starship page.
4. Airspace and maritime hazard notices for the launch and landing areas.
5. SpaceX's third-quarter results webcast on 20 October at 3:30 p.m. CDT, SpaceX says. It hasn't said whether it will cover Starship.
6. A SpaceX Flight 15 mission page with a launch window and webcast link. That is the only true "official date". When it appears, we will add the launch time in Starbase local time.

What comes after Flight 15?

Elon says reflying both stages, using a booster and a ship that have flown before, is the next big milestone. It's likely Flight 16 won't wait for full checks on any vehicles caught on Flight 15. RGV Aerial Photography already names Ship 43 as the Flight 16 ship. SpaceX is preparing Florida for Starship as well as Starbase. Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center already hosts Falcon launches, and SpaceX has said it is developing more Starship pads on the Cape. Whether Flight 16 flies from Florida, and when, still depends on how Flight 15 goes.

Reuse is also behind SpaceX's push to fly much more often. The FAA currently allows up to 25 Starship launches a year from Starbase. On 14 October it opened a review of a proposal for up to 100 launches a year in a first phase and up to 456 later. Public meetings run 17 to 19 November, and comments close on 30 November. None of it is approved yet.

Flight 15 is the first real test of whether the ship can come home in one piece.