Starship Flight 14, now targeted for September 28, 2026, will not attempt a Super Heavy booster catch at the launch tower.
Instead, Booster 21 is set to perform a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The flight aims to be Starship’s first full orbital mission, with Ship 41 completing six orbits before a Pacific Ocean splashdown.
The launch was delayed six days from its original September 22 target.
SpaceX cited unspecified hardware and software changes ahead of the flight.
Unlike some earlier flights, Super Heavy Booster 21 will not attempt a catch at the launch tower; instead it is set to perform a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX said it made unspecified ‘modifications to hardware and software’ to address issues seen on the previous Starship flight.
For the first time on a Starship mission, SpaceX plans to fly two previously recovered heatshield tiles, marking an initial step toward heatshield tile reuse.
Starship launches from Starbase, SpaceX’s private launch site near Boca Chica in South Texas.
Starship is designed to be fully reusable and is central to SpaceX’s plans for satellite deployment, Moon missions under NASA’s Artemis programme, and eventual Mars missions.
The vehicle consists of the Super Heavy booster as the first stage and the Starship upper stage, both powered by SpaceX’s Raptor engines.
SpaceX delayed Starship Flight 14 from September 22 to September 28, 2026, without publicly specifying a reason.
The new launch window opens at 8:15 am EDT (12:15 UTC) on September 28, with a 75-minute window.
Flight 14 will use Super Heavy Booster 21 (B21) and Ship 41 (S41), both part of the newer Starship Block 3 vehicle design.
Booster 21 was rolled out to the launch pad at Starbase, Texas, on the night of September 20 into September 21 in preparation for the flight.
SpaceX Starship full stack, Starbase, Texas (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
