SpaceX has completed a full-duration static fire with the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy booster preparing Starship Flight 15, the company announced in a post on X on October 25, 2026. In the test, the booster stays anchored to the ground at Starbase, Texas, while all of its engines fire.
Flight 15 will be Starship's 15th integrated flight and the programme's fourth flight in 2026. Reports point to mid-November as the target for launch, on a multi-orbit mission similar to Flight 14, but SpaceX has not yet published a firm launch date.
The flight's ambition is to try to recover both stages with the launch tower's arms, nicknamed chopsticks: the Super Heavy booster and the Ship spacecraft. On October 20, chief executive Elon Musk said that, if it works, it will be the first time an orbital vehicle has been fully recovered. So far, the booster has been caught by the tower three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, while no Ship has ever been caught.
President and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said the company expects the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licence to cover tower catches of both stages on return to the launch site, but that licence has not yet been publicly finalised. Independent trackers identify the Flight 15 booster as Booster 22, information not yet confirmed by SpaceX.
The previous flight, Flight 14, on September 28, was the programme's first multi-orbit mission: it placed 26 Starlink V3 satellites in orbit, but suffered engine failures on both stages and had the Ship's orbit shortened, ending with a splashdown in the northern Pacific. The 33-engine static fire is therefore a verification step before SpaceX attempts its next leap, the dual catch.
Fontes: Starlust, com a publicação da SpaceX no X em 25 de outubro de 2026, e NeoTeo.
Image credit: SpaceX, via Starlust. The image shows Starship lifting off on Flight 14, on September 28, 2026, not the Flight 15 static fire.
Transparency: this article was produced with the help of artificial intelligence, cross-checked against public posts on X and internet sources. Check the original sources to confirm the details.
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