Starship: the Cape's fuel closes, flight dates slip, and Ship 40 comes home
From the Space digest for 2026-10-10
What happened: (1) The fuel problem closes: Florida regulators approved the Coastal Connect tariff and SpaceX's subsidiary filed for a 32.4-mile gas pipeline through Brevard County to feed Starship — sized for up to 76 launches/yr (SLC-37/39A; the "truck deliveries can't keep up" note is the why). FAA input window open on the Starship-Florida plans; four Cape environmental reviews advanced (Starship, New Glenn, Terran R). (2) F15/F16 slipped (unofficial schedule, Foust): NET Nov 8 (Pad 2 catch) / Dec 10 (39A debut) vs planning dates of Oct 19/30 a week prior; Pad 2 chopsticks exercised for the catch attempt. (3) Ship 40 home: the Flight 13 recovery arrived at Port Brownsville Oct 7 — ~75 days / ~12,000 nm at sea ("Odysseus's voyage home took ten years. Ship 40 took 75 days") — as Ship 42 went to Massey's for cryo proof tests and McGregor ran a 557-second Raptor firing (second-longest ever) plus F9-booster static fire.
What's genuinely new: the pipeline/tariff was the thread's Oct 5 docket watch — now filed (76/yr sizing makes it structural, not incremental); the slip is a checkable date-set (Foust's comparison vs the prior week's planning is the record); and the ocean-recovery return is the first full-cycle data point on reusability logistics.
Watch: F15 actually flying in November, the pipeline docket, pad-order confirmation at 39A, whether F16's 39A debut holds Dec 10.
Links: NSF Starship updates · Foust via feed (slip)