Starship Flight 15 is confirmed for November 13, with a first attempt to catch both stages
From the Space digest for Nov 7, 2026
What happened: SpaceX has confirmed that Starship's 15th integrated test flight is targeted no earlier than November 13, 2026, from Starbase, Texas, pending Federal Aviation Administration approval, with liftoff in a 75-minute window opening at 4:45 p.m. Central time. The mission would, for the first time, attempt to catch both stages of the rocket with the "Mechazilla" launch tower at Pad 2 — the Super Heavy booster returning to the launch site after stage separation, and the Ship upper stage caught the day after launch, per SpaceX's mission overview. Ship 42 is to climb to about 275 km, orbit Earth roughly 14 times over a flight of more than 22 hours, and deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, as Flight 14 did on September 28.
What's genuinely new: The company's own confirmation of the November 13 date — previously attributed to SpaceX vice-president of launch Kiko Dontchev from the UP.Summit on November 5 — came with a detailed mission description: three of the Starlink satellites will scan Ship 42's heatshield and transmit imagery down; flight controllers will permit the return-to-launch-site catch only if the vehicle meets SpaceX's internally developed, FAA-approved conditions; and if problems arise mid-flight the mission can be ended early over pre-cleared areas near Hawaii and Chile, with a splashdown in the Gulf of America also an option if the vehicle or the Pad 2 tower fails. A NOTAM now covers November 13–20 for a possible Indian Ocean reentry in case SpaceX forgoes the catch, with primary reentry timing between 11:53 p.m. and 1:14 a.m. UTC on the night of November 13–14 and the same backup timings through November 20. SpaceX has caught a Super Heavy booster three times (Flights 5, 7 and 8) but the Ship catch was dropped from Flight 14 in favour of the orbital profile; catching and recovering an entire orbital rocket would be a first. Meanwhile Ship 40 — the Flight 13 survivor that spent months at sea before returning to Starbase — is being moved out of Mega Bay 2.
Watch: the FAA launch license, whether the dual catch is attempted or falls back to the Indian Ocean splashdown, and what becomes of the caught Ship.
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