SpaceX Scales Back Starship Flight 14: Ship Catch Delayed, Launch Slips to September

SpaceX has scaled back plans for Starship Flight 14, abandoning the first attempt to catch the upper stage at the launch site. The launch has slipped from late August to mid-September.

Key Takeaways

SpaceX has scaled back plans for Starship Flight 14, abandoning the first attempt to catch the upper stage at the launch site.
The launch has slipped from late August to mid-September.

AI synthesis3 sources6

SpaceX has scaled back plans for the next flight of its Starship vehicle. Elon Musk said on an August 4 earnings call that Flight 14 would happen by month's end with an attempt to catch the upper stage back at the launch site. On August 20, he reversed course: looks like we will probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months. The launch has now slipped to at least September 15. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman had expected early September as part of increased cadence for Artemis lunar plans. The delays come as SpaceX works to retrieve the ship from Flight 13, which survived splashdown in the Indian Ocean and was towed to Christmas Island on August 18. Flight 14 was originally planned as Starship's first orbital mission deploying Starlink satellites.