SpaceX's first planned orbital flight of Starship, designated Flight 14, has been held back on the launch pad at Starbase in Texas. The stack, made up of Booster 21 and Ship 41, went through a wet dress rehearsal that reached near-ignition before a deluge system was triggered and the countdown stopped. The launch is now waiting on regulatory approval, which reportedly arrived on Saturday.
Ship 41 is carrying 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and the stack was taken apart and left at the pad after the aborted rehearsal. The reporting from NASASpaceflight notes that every Version 3 Starship flight so far has encountered some form of scrub before liftoff, a pattern that sets expectations for how the schedule may move. The Flight 14 launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. local time at Starbase, which could make it a sunrise launch.
Beyond Flight 14, the company's presentation slides lay out a near-term manifest. Flight 15 is listed no earlier than October 19 and may attempt to catch one or both vehicles, pending approval. Flight 16, designated Starlink 30-1, is listed no earlier than October 30 and would launch from Florida's Launch Complex 39A. Those dates are provisional and are expected to slip. The Florida pad has tested its top-deck deluge system for the first time, though it does not yet hold a Starship license.
For Flight 14 to count as a success, the mission needs to reach orbit, keep the ship working, and survive reentry. The outcome will shape how quickly the company can move from test flights toward operational missions carrying satellites.
We rewrote this story on 4 November 2026 after an editorial review.
Credit. Based on reporting by Chris Bergin and Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera for NASASpaceflight. Is this your work? Write to us.
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