Starship Flight 15 targets Nov. 13, but dual catch needs FAA approval

Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceX will try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Ship 42. No Starship spacecraft has yet been caught. Flight 15 would also deliver the first catch of a Block 3 booster, a member of the series now in production, and the first catch at Pad 2.

How long will Flight 15 remain in orbit?

The working plan calls for a mission of roughly 24 hours, giving Ship 42 time to adjust its orbit until it lines up with the targeted re-entry corridor, the flight path back toward Starbase and Pad 2. Controllers would retain built-in early-return points if they lacked confidence that the spacecraft could leave orbit safely at the planned endpoint.

Flight 14 used the same conservative approach. After deploying its payload, Ship 41 returned home instead of completing its planned coast of about eight hours.

Under the full profile, Ship 42 would complete about 15 to 16 orbits. That would make Flight 15 by far the longest Starship mission, against just over three hours for Flight 14, or roughly eight times its duration.

The long stay would measure propellant boil-off, the loss of stored propellant as it warms, and Starship’s performance over an extended period in space. Those numbers would matter for the ship-to-ship propellant-transfer demonstration, which moves propellant between spacecraft.

NASA’s latest Starship milestone chart places that demonstration in the first quarter of 2027. The data would also matter for later propellant tanker and depot flights and for the Human Landing System (HLS), NASA’s lunar-lander program.

What is SpaceX preparing for Flight 16?

SpaceX has already begun preparing the Flight 16 pairing. Booster 23 returned to Mega Bay 1 on 30 October after spending more than two days at Massey’s. The move may prepare it for an ambient-pressure test, a test at ordinary air pressure, following earlier cryogenic work involving very cold propellant.

Ship 43 has completed cryogenic proof and catch-related testing and now is receiving engines ahead of a static fire expected in December. SpaceX plans to pair the vehicles for the first Starship launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center.

Booster 23 should also static-fire on the Florida pad as part of activating the site. Starship spacecraft still conduct static fires only at Massey’s until the proposed Project Ignition test stands near Roberts Road come online. Because Ship 43’s static fire is now due in mid-December, its Florida debut looks more likely in early 2027 than in 2026.

The FAA is expected to add LC-39A to SpaceX’s existing Starship licence, VOL 23-129. SpaceX’s Florida schedule will continue to depend on the outcome of Flight 15.

What follows in the production queue?

Inside Mega Bay 2, Ship 44 and Ship 45 are advancing while SpaceX manages its available workstation space. After a successful catch, Ship 42 would provide richer post-flight data than Ship 40, which spent more than a month at sea after an ocean splashdown. SpaceX could also send selected Ship 42 Raptor engines for stand testing after the flight.

On the booster line, Booster 24 is fully stacked. Stacking of Booster 25 began around 2 November, indicating that Block 3 production has reached a healthier cadence.

One regulatory decision still governs the near-term schedule: whether the FAA authorizes Ship 42’s return to Pad 2.