Starship's dual flow: Ship 43 home from Massey's, then back out to Pad 2; Ship 42 moves in; Booster 22 returns to Mega Bay 1
From the Space digest for Oct 26, 2026
What happened: Overnight, the NASASpaceflight Starbase relay followed three pieces of hardware at once: Ship 43 heading back to production after its Massey's campaign, Ship 42 taking its place at the test site, and Booster 22 coming off the orbital launch mount (~11:02 PM ET, October 25). NSF's own post confirmed the pairing less than an hour later: "Ship at the double! Starship Flight 16: Ship 43 returning from Massey's. Starship Flight 15: Ship 42 taking its place" (~12:01 AM ET, October 26), followed by the Rough Riders broadcast crew's "double roll Sunday" footage with Ship 43 leaving Massey's (~12:07 AM ET) and Ship 43 turning onto Highway 4 under the Moon (~12:18 AM ET). By ~12:29 AM ET NSF reported Booster 22 being lifted off Pad 2 following its successful static fire — "three events are going on now!" The early-morning relays then resolved the moves: an NSF relay confirmed Booster 22 lifted off the launch mount "to the top of the tower" (~1:16 AM ET, October 26), followed by a relay reporting a delay in Booster 22's roll-back to the barn while Ship 43 was already back at production and Ship 42 about to leave (~3:07 AM ET), then Ship 43 at the Massey's entrance with Ship 42 arriving (~6:13 AM ET) and Booster 22 returned to the production site after its impressive static fire (~5:51 AM ET). A midday NSF relay — footage credited to Elisar Priel — filled in the specifics: Booster 22 returned to Mega Bay 1, while Ship 42 arrived at Massey's for its own static-fire testing (~8:55 AM ET, October 26). A basenor roundup published the same morning recounts the same few days of activity — Booster 22 moved to the pad and fired, Ship 43 through its testing. The next leg came in the afternoon: NSF reported Ship 43's going to Pad 2, likely for some catch tests with the chopsticks (~3:17 PM ET, October 26), with relay footage noting the Flight 16 ship's heat-shield tiles ("TPS") look superb (~3:24 PM ET). NSF RTs through the evening kept the pad live and sharpened the purpose: a relay announced "Ship 43 has been transported to pad!" with "some ship catch testing ahead of Flight 15" expected (~5:01 PM ET, October 26), a second relay described Ship 43 (Flight 16) having "took a stroll to Pad 2, likely for catch testing ahead of Flight 15" (~5:46 PM ET), and after dark a third had Ship 43 "in the air" at Pad 2, ahead of what we expect to be "catch testing" this evening, while preparations for Ship 42's static fire continued at Massey's (~8:04 PM ET).
What's genuinely new: The shuffle resolved — and immediately reopened. Ship 43 (the confirmed Flight 16 vehicle) finished the Massey's cryo-testing campaign it began October 22 and returned to production; Ship 42 (through Massey's in early September for the Flight 15 flow) has arrived at Massey's in its place for its own static-fire round; and Booster 22 came full circle, lifted off the Pad 2 mount after Sunday's good full-duration 33-engine static fire and returned specifically to Mega Bay 1. Then the pad filled again: Ship 43 went to Pad 2 and, after dark, was reported "in the air" at the pad ahead of expected catch testing — with NSF's relays keying the chopsticks work to Flight 15, pad-side catch-rehearsal procedures in service of the November 8 dual-catch attempt rather than a later Flight 16 timeline, while Ship 42's static-fire preparations continued at Massey's in parallel.
Watch: the Ship 43 catch tests at Pad 2 and their timing against Flight 15; the Ship 42 Massey's static-fire campaign and its outcome; the booster-side steps Booster 22 faces before the November 8 dual-catch attempt; updated Flight 15 targeting beyond November 8.
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