WORLDTECHSpaceX eyes November 8 for Starship Flight 15 after Ship 42 engines are pulled
SpaceX is working through the next two Starship missions as it aims to finish 2026, with Flight 15 currently targeted for November. According to NASASpaceFlight, the latest CADENA slide update gives November 8 as the No Earlier Than date, a timeline that depends on both the booster and the Ship completing a static fire test.
Ship 42 detour delays its testing
Ship 42 was close to making its trip to Massey's for that test when its engines were removed. The vehicle instead made a brief extra journey to the test site for a cryoproof.
The engine removal may be linked to the Raptor Vacuum (RVac) shutdown observed during Flight 14. Changes inside Ship 42 could also have called for another cryogenic proof test, which in turn meant taking the engines off. SpaceX may additionally have wanted to validate engine software updates at its McGregor facility, although no such testing has yet been publicly observed there.
Musk attributes engine fault to software
Elon Musk has addressed the problem, describing it as a software failure confined to the engine computer on that single unit. In an interview he said the fault did not show up on any other engine, calling it a glitch of little concern that should be simple to fix.
The sea-level Raptors did not display the same software problem, which left SpaceX confident they would perform as expected, so the orbital attempt went ahead. That suggests the issue is not a wider engine hardware fault, although it does not fully account for why the engines were later removed from Ship 42.
Flight cadence and the Block 3 transition
Musk also spoke about the number of changes made between flights, which he said can run from hundreds to thousands, in line with figures the company has cited before. He indicated the current campaign carries fewer modifications than some earlier ones, though certain updates still require considerable work.
The resulting cadence would produce only five Starship launches in 2026, closely tied to the shift from Block 2 to Block 3 vehicles. Over the longer term, SpaceX continues to project hundreds of launches per year from Starbase alone.
Open questions
- Will both the booster and the Ship complete their static fire tests in time for November 8?
- Will Flight 16, aimed for December, become the first Starship launch from Launch Complex 39A?